Van insurance news roundup: 7 days ending 21 oct 2012:
Move over, lads – new research results this week revealed that there’s more women behind the wheels of vans than you might have thought at first.
According to one car insurance provider’s recent survey, as many as one out of every three van drivers using their vehicles in the course of a business were female. Not only that, but AXA Business Insurance, which provides commercial van insurance to its customers, found that around 14 per cent of these women found it insulting to be referred to as ‘the White Van Man.’
Nearly three out of every four of these women said that the stereotypes associated with the White Van Man appellation were more or less accurate, while almost one out of every three actually found it amusing. Female van drivers seem to have a better sense of humour than their male counterparts, as only 29 per cent of men who drive vans for a living were amused by the nickname.
Most van drivers, whether they be men or women, were found to be overall quite responsible drivers. Almost 70 per cent reported not being convicted of a traffic offence with in the last decade, even though more than half of them spent 10 hours out of every week behind the wheel and 15 per cent spending in excess of 30 hours a week driving.
Women were actually found to be slightly more cautious than men when it came to avoiding traffic citations throughout the past ten years. In fact, men reported being offence-free 67 per cent of the time, while women said that they had not been cited for an offence 73 per cent of the time, a difference of 6 percentage points.
AXA Bisuness Insurance’s managing director,Darrell Sansom, commented on the findings, indicating that the last ten years have left van drivers with a pretty sour reputation. However, Mr Sansom pointed out how far off the mark these stereotypes have become over these intervening years, pointing out that not only has professionalism undergone a steep rise amongst the courier vehicle and delivery van community but that an increasing number of women are driving vans for a living as well.