Van drivers collect more convictions

12th October 2012

Van drivers are more than twice as likely to have racked up motoring convictions than car drivers, a study by AA Insurance has found.

For all convictions, 15.5% of van drivers have had their driving license endorsed within the past five years, compared with 7.4% of car drivers.  But when it comes to mobile phone convictions, there is a stark difference between van and car drivers, with 2.4% of van drivers having collected a CU80 offence compared with just 0.4% of car drivers.

“The significantly higher number of van drivers’ offences is astonishing, but is perhaps down to the pressure to get between jobs and keep customers informed,” Simon Douglas, a director of AA Insurance, said.  “But they’re clearly getting stung for it – not just fines and the risk of losing their license, but higher insurance premiums too.”

He said insurers take mobile phone offences much more seriously than speeding, even though the penalty is identical for both:  “Our own research shows that on average, offenders can expect their premium to increase by 9.3% for a single speeding offence and by 18.5% if they have been convicted of using a hand-held phone.

The South East is where van drivers are most likely to have picked up any motoring conviction with one in six (17.4%) having done so within the past five years, compared with 7.3% of car drivers in the region.

Van drivers in Scotland (3.4%) and Greater London (3.2%) were most likely to have been stopped by police and convicted of using a hand-held mobile device while driving, compared with 0.5% of car drivers in both regions.