Experts have recently concluded that van speeding problems have reached epidemic proportions.
The number of drivers willing to speed in a van has reached a record high, to the point that is creating a major safety problem on the roads and costing judgements of money. Experts believe that the new government should attempt to deal with the problem during their time in power, finally bringing an end to this once and for all.
Most Likely to Speed
Recent evidence collected by the department for transport shows that van drivers are the most likely group to speed up in built-up areas but also whilst on the motorway. The statistics suggest that in a free-flowing traffic area where 30 miles an hour is the limit, nearly 45% of van drivers were reported speeding.
The problem continues on the motorway, as 47% of van drivers exceeded the 70 mile an hour speed limit on a regular basis. When it is considered that there are roughly 4,500,000 commercial vehicles using the roads, roughly 2,000,000 of those could easily have been speeding.
Expert Quotes
The issue has prompted comments across the motor industry.
Red Corporate Driver Training’s head of corporate, Greg Ford, had this to offer:
‘“The instances of speeding in vans are remarkably, worryingly, consistent across all road types that were measured. Extrapolate that across the millions of vans drivers at work in the UK, and it illustrates that drivers at work in commercial vehicles are breaking the law far too often. Not only does this provide a safety risk, but costs more too because the faster a van goes, the more fuel it uses, while also carrying inherent reputational damage for the company as well.”
‘In our work with fleets, this is one of the single biggest sources of confusion, and risk: the speed limits for different commercial vehicle types and weights. So often when drivers come to us, they don’t know whether their commercial vehicle should be 56, 60 or 70mph on a dual carriageway, or 50, 56 or 60mph on a single.’
Ford advocates for greater training for drivers, offering these thoughts:
‘As these DfT figures show, there are a lot of van drivers out there breaking speed limits. But what these figures don’t show, and it’s something fleets need to think about, is how many of their drivers are breaking speed limits without realising, because they’re unaware of the limit on their specific vehicle? Then, when a speeding ticket comes in, they’re shocked they’ve done something wrong, when they thought they were driving considerately’.
An Ongoing Problem
It should be clear by now that this is a grave and concerning problem. It will be the responsibility of the government to launch initiatives that help prevent this from occurring. Any government that came in would be tasked with improving the state of the roads and making them safer for everybody, and this is the first step in that process.