Van fleet operators will be kept in the dark over their vehicles’ fuel economy and CO2 figures, despite new legislation forcing manufacturers to produce such figures for all new LCVs.

From January 2008, all vans under 3.5 tonnes must be emissions tested, empty on a rolling road, to comply with EU regulations. However, there will be no requirement to publish the findings.

With increasing pressure to go green but with no information to help them, fleet operators are now calling for these findings to be released.

Linda O’Hara, fleet manager at Musgrave, said: “If you’re being encouraged to go as green as possible, then fleet operators need that information.”

Some manufacturers have taken the initiative and already publish their economy figures.

Volkswagen has been doing so for the past 30 years and Citroën and Peugeot now voluntarily publish their figures, pre-empting the monitoring process in January. Ian Sedgewick, PR manager at Peugeot, called for other van makers to follow suit.

“All manufacturers have these figures anyway and having to release them would be a good thing as it makes the market more transparent,” he said.

There has been concern among those manufacturers who don’t publish their figures that the tests will not be accurate, as they will be conducted with empty vans and aerodynamics will not be taken into account.

Dave Pets, from Ford, said the manufacturer would not publish its economy data unless forced to. “When the law changes we will publish the figures,” he said.

Fleet Van editor Trevor Gelken defended the monitoring methods. He said: “I know these tests aren’t ideal but at least it’s a level playing field, so buyers will be able to make real and meaningful comparisons.

“For the figures not to be published makes a nonsense of the new law.”

The Department for Transport (DfT) said it had no plans to force manufacturers to publish their vans’ efficiency and emissions figures.

A spokesman said: “It would make no sense for the Government to legislate to make the data public before the EU makes its proposal, in the event that the EU has differing views on how the data should be published.”