Highest van mileage since records began

28th March 2014

Light goods vehicles continue to outstrip other vehicle categories based on mileage growth, the latest Department for Transport figures show.

Vans up to 3.5 tonnes gvw travelled 42.9 billion miles in Britain last year, 4% up on 2012 and 66% higher than a decade ago.

Heavy goods vehicles, meanwhile, travelled 15.7 billion miles, just 0.9% up on 2012 and 4% up on 1993.  Similarly, car and taxi traffic totalled 242 billion miles, 0.8% up on 2012 and 15% up on 1993.

Quarter 4 2013 saw the highest quarterly van traffic figure since records began in 1993. It totalled 10.9 billion vehicle miles, 3.4% higher than in the same quarter in the previous year.

The estimates are based on traffic data collected continuously from a national network of around 200 Automatic Traffic Counters.

Looking at influencing factors, the DfT highlighted how traffic levels change with the economy.  GDP rose over the course of 2013, which suggests that economic growth may have contributed to the upward trend in traffic volumes.