Four-year cycle is the popular choice

25th July 2013

Four years is by far the most common replacement cycle for van fleets, according to a survey of Company Van Trends.

More than half of organisations (55%) from among the 176 questioned by GE are running a four-year cycle, with just over a quarter (27%) opting for five.  At the other end of the spectrum, 10% of respondents said they kept vans until they were defunct.

There are two extremes when it comes to running an LCV fleet replacement cycle – either on a planned and budgeted fixed term, or to simply keep them going until it is no longer economically viable.

The disadvantages of the ‘drive-until-destruction’ approach are that expenditure on repairs and maintenance has a strong tendency to become both higher and more unpredictable, while vans also start to reach a point where they start to look scruffy in terms of the corporate image they project – an important consideration for many companies.

Key factors to be considered within a van replacement policy, Simon Cook of GE Capital UK said, “should be reliability, whole life cost, operational needs, mileage covered, safety, image and driver acceptance.  Through careful balancing of these, an optimum term can be established.  As with every area of your fleet, this should be reviewed regularly in response to changing business conditions.”