Rise in van traffic ‘ticking accident time bomb’ says IAM

In my opinion, the problem with vans is down to time pressures and inept drivers.

At my last job I was told off for being 10 minutes late due to a major accident on the main road. Incidents like that were part of the reason I quit! Of course you can't remove all time pressure, but the levels of pressure some people are under makes them unsafe to have on the road. 

Also, inept drivers are a problem. Either they are too angry a person to be allowed behind the wheel, or they are unable to drive safely. I'm also sure vans have bigger blind spots than cars, which need addressing.

It is 1.6/2.7% of drivers were observed to be using a mobile. That means that when the test was done that many were observed.

A far higher number might well use mobile phones frequently but just happened not to be using them where the test was conducted.

This result is consistent with half of all drivers using mobile phones for say 1/30 of the time they spend driving.

You hear statistics with much higher percentages but no-one believes this percentage use the phone the entire time they are at the wheel.

A few points. First, this is a reason why I don't support the LCC campaign on lorries as-is, I believe it would add to the increase in frieght deliveries by vehicles below 3.5t with drivers who have no specific training. I don't want to see a shift from highly trained drivers, and the problem is mostly within the construction industry.

Second, time based pressure is a major cause of the danger. H&S law should address employment contracts that incentivise dangerous driving. I made exactly the same point with the changes to the Deliveroo contracts, it's true whether it's truck, van, or bicycle delivery (relative danger being vastly different of course).

I'd quite happily bring down the tonnage of the standard driving license to 2t. That's the same weight as a London taxi, and would cover most vehicles. I'm also quite happy that it would exclude monstrosities such as the Audi Q7.  Wycombewheeler's point is a good one, but I believe hire vans are actually involved in a relatively high number of collisions.

I  suspect that the 1.4% & 2.7% figures quoted have simply had a decimal point inserted accidentally. 

I (vaguely)understand the need for communications on the job but.....BLUETOOTH FFS!! Not one hand on the wheel the other clamped to the phone. It's not like it's new technology or anything.

Sadly, van drivers do seem to drive to stereotypes and are generally twats who don't seem to give a shit.

rather than increasing the tests for van use I would rather see an increase in use for professional drivers.

Sometimes you just need to move something larger and hire a van, with an increased licence required that means getting someone to drive it too.

More important to see an increase in the driving standard of delivery drivers and taxi/mini cab drivers than delivery drivers and those who hire a van once a year.

To those whose primary role is driving as above, i woudl add anyone who drives more than 5,000 miles a year for business purposes.

These van drivers do need to be in communication as they make deliveries. So there needs to be a way to do that safely. Mandatory earpiece perhaps? With the call centres just calling instead of texting? 

The DfT figures for mobile use are a joke surely?  2.7% for van drivers and 1.4% for car drivers?!  

There should be some kind of phone jamming device in all vehicles, that stops phones working in cars with the engine on.  How hard or expensive would that be?  You might be a high-powered sales exec who drives for 6 hours  a day and you may need to take and receive phone calls constantly, but just stop the car and then do it!

Excuse me what???

"van drivers are almost twice as likely as car drivers to use hand-held mobile phones at the wheel – 2.7 per cent compared to 1.4 per cent of car drivers."

Where the hell did they get those figures from? In my admittedly unscientific observations it must be getting on for ten times that figure! I couldn't say if van drivers are worse than cars, but there's certainly a hell of a lot more people than 1.4 percent using their phones behind the wheel of their car.

Perhaps they should be introducing more rigourous controls on licensing for driving vans, and whilst they're at it make the standard car license tougher to hold on to as well. Compulsory re-test on 5-10 year intervals I reckon.

That's because a disproportionate number of van drivers seem to be total asshats.