Fresh advice for fleets keeping their vans for longer periods

The document explains how vehicle operators’ resistance to buying electric vans, coupled with increasing shortages and higher prices for diesel vans, is likely to result in substantially extended replacement cycles.

Barrie Wilson, commercial fleet consultant at the fleet software specialist, said: “There are two trends in the van sector. One is that because of issues over range, payload and cost, van fleets are not electrifying at anything like the rate envisaged in the ZEV (zero emission vehicle) mandate.

“The second is that major manufacturers including have said that they will meet the production ratios stipulated in the ZEV Mandate by reducing diesel van production rather than risk paying the extremely high punitive fines. The most probable is that diesel vans are going to become in increasingly short supply and more expensive.

“Some fleets will start to electrify in response but the indications that we see across our customer base are that many will hang onto their existing diesel vans for much longer.”

The white paper highlights four areas where fleets need to concentrate efforts – routine service and maintenance, defect management, record keeping and data collection, and budgetary pressures.

“There’s no denying that operating vans into probably eight years and longer will create significant issues for fleets and we use the white paper to examine these,” explained Wilson. “Our view is that it is viable for operators but will require a high degree of effort and of course, fleet management software has a key role to play.”

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