Majority of public are fans of trade van drivers

When members of the public were asked about their perspective on van drivers, 41% said they thought them to be hard-working, 23% said they were highly skilled drivers, and 12% considered them to be conscientious and courteous behind the wheel.

In contrast, just 7% of the public thought trade van drivers to be lazy, for example, by taking too many breaks or parking inconsiderately to save time. Only 16% thought of van drivers as having poor driving skills, and 14% believing them to be rude.

From the results of a parallel survey, Farizon found that tradespeople themselves bear out the public’s perceptions. The survey was answered by 200 tradies which found that more than half of say they work more than 8 hours a day: 38% work between 8 and 10 hours, 14% between 10 and 12 hours, and 1% over 12 hours. While 45% of tradespeople take one break a day or less, most members of the public (59%) expect them to take two or more breaks a day.

Calum James, Country General Manager at Farizon Auto UK, said: “It’s very gratifying that public perception of trade van drivers is positive. They play a crucial role as the lifeblood of our economy, making sure the goods and services we all take for granted are available to us whenever we need them. These hard-working unsung heroes should be celebrated on National Tradesmen Day and should be respected every day of the year!”

Impatience not a virtue

While the public overall showed favour with van drivers, a significant proportion (34%) think they are impatient behind the wheel. Farizon’s survey found that over half (53%) think that driving now is more stressful than it was 10 years ago, while 58% say that roads are more congested, and the same proportion think that driving is more expensive.

“I sympathise with the view that driving has become more stressful over recent years, as roads have become more congested and more heavily regulated, with more charges for driving into city centres” continued James. “However, the latest generation of electric vans come with a host of convenience features to make driving easier. Farizon vans are built from the ground up to be electric, so can carry impressive payloads on compact footprints. Both the SV and V7E have 360-degree cameras to make parking less stressful, blind spot detection to keep driving safer, and the SV adds a payload monitoring system to help driver stay on the right side of the law. As the cost-of-living squeezes all of us, switching from diesel vans to electric can save tradies a vanload of money on running costs, without any compromise in payload, volume or versatility. The Fuel Cost Calculator on our website lets them compare our vans’ costs against diesel equivalents.” James concluded.