Survey finds van drivers optimistic about new technology

A new survey from UK insurance website Gocompare.com Van Insurance asked van drivers what they think of the new technology that might affect their business. Safety was a concern when it came to new technology. Over 50 per cent of respondents said they thought futuristic technology might provide a safety risk. This was of particular concern to drivers in both Belfast and Norwich – with 71 per cent of the respondents in those cities naming it as an issue for them. The next most worrying factor for drivers was
April 20, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
A new survey from UK insurance website 5175 Gocompare.com Van Insurance asked van drivers what they think of the new technology that might affect their business.


Safety was a concern when it came to new technology. Over 50 per cent of respondents said they thought futuristic technology might provide a safety risk. This was of particular concern to drivers in both Belfast and Norwich – with 71 per cent of the respondents in those cities naming it as an issue for them.

The next most worrying factor for drivers was the potential for reliance on technology. Almost half said they thought the ease involved in using future van technology would make workers over-reliant on gadgets over their own skills.

Asked what technology would be the most useful for van drivers, only 1.5 per cent were interested in the ability to run apps in their vans, suggesting digital integration isn’t a priority, while other potential inventions such as automatic parking, active window displays and driverless functionality proved more popular.

While automatic parking was indisputably popular, respondents were more conflicted on driverless cars.

But although it made the top three most popular future technology options among van drivers, it was also in the top three for the technology that they felt would have the most negative impact on their business. One in ten said that future technology might be a problem and of them 58 per cent said that they thought it might make their own skills obsolete.

Overall, optimism towards technology is high, with 82 per cent of respondents being interested in at least one of the forms of technology on offer. Forty per cent felt that their efficiency would be increased by the advances and a further 41 per cent were interested in the improvements to their safety as a result of added resources.

Location Based Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • The smart in smart parking
    March 29, 2018
    Whether you want to reduce congestion, increase parking revenue or reduce occupancy – or a mixture of all three – there is plenty of technology available. Andrew Bardin Williams considers the pros and cons. Drawn in by the promise of Smart City initiatives, communities across North America are embracing smart parking solutions in an effort to change citizens’ transportation behaviours for the better. They are doing this by using policy and ITS solutions to help de-incentivise parking for most people while
    Read More
  • Developing ‘next generation’ traffic control centre technology
    July 4, 2012
    The Rijkswaterstaat and Highways Agency have joined forces to investigate what the market can do to realise an idealistic vision for traffic control centre technology. Jon Masters reports One particular seminar session of the Intertraffic show in Amsterdam in March was notably over subscribed. So heavy was the press to attend that your author, making his way over late from another appointment, could not get in and found himself craning over other heads locked outside to overhear what was being said. The
    Read More
  • Maturing photo enforcement gains legal status, public support
    August 2, 2012
    In the US, affirmation of the photo traffic enforcement sector's legal status and rising public support were significant aspects of 2009. James Tuton, President and CEO of American Traffic Solutions, looks back over the year. In 2009, the photo traffic enforcement industry in North America continued to grow and mature, accompanied by increased public, legislative and legal scrutiny. While public support remains strong, we also saw increased attempts to undermine the industry by representatives of a small bu
    Read More
  • ITS needs continuity at the policy-making level
    February 1, 2012
    ITS needs to be sold to politicians in plainer terms and we need to be encouraging greater continuity at the policy-making level says Josef Czako, chairman of the IRF's Policy Committee on ITS. At the ITS World Congress in New York in 2008, the International Road Federation (IRF) held the inaugural meeting of its Policy Committee on ITS. The Policy Committee's formation, says its chairman, Kapsch's Josef Czako, reflects an ongoing concern over the lack of deployment of ITS technology on roads in anything li
    Read More

Highlighted Content