The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has launched an on-line survey of van users.

www.smmt.co.uk/industryissues is aimed at van operators, particularly those with smaller fleets.

“There is less information on the way people use vans than we’d like, so we’re running the survey to see how much more data we can find,” explained SMMT spokesman Robin Dickeson.

“We’ll use our findings to help us and our members understand the market and some of the pressures that shape it.”

UK van sales have more than doubled to over 380,000 a year in the past 10 years.

“Nearly half the vans on the road seem to work delivering goods, with the other half delivering services, many run by quite small firms.

"We’d like to know more about how and why people run their vans so that van makers can use the information to deliver even better products and services,” said Mr Dickeson.