Half of all van thefts occur on site
Thu, 08 May 2025
Half of all vehicle thefts occur while vans are parked at a job site according to a survey by Tempcover Insurance with a third of those resulting in damage to the vehicle.
It's just one of the many van-related reasons why tradespeople are having to cancel jobs in order to deal with their vehicle being off the road. Meanwhile, 30% of thefts from a van happen outside the owner's house.
According to the findings, over a third of respondents reported having experienced a van breakdown at some point, while almost one in five had dealt with faults that left their van unusable for a period of time.
Almost half of the 500 tradespeople surveyed said they had lost between 4-8 hours of paid work due to their most recent van-related issues, with some losing more than a full week.
Time off the road doesn’t just mean inconvenience, it directly impacts income. Around a quarter of tradespeople said they had to delay jobs due to a lack of transport, putting their income and customer relationships at risk.
Faced with sudden transport issues, tradespeople resorted to borrow vehicles from friends, family members or colleagues just to keep working, while others ended up renting a vehicle to cover the gap.
When asked about the impact of these issues, a third of tradespeople said they had to pay out of their own pocket to get them rectified, spending between anything between £750 and £1500 to get back on the road.
The research also revealed trends around vehicle maintenance and servicing. While nearly half of tradespeople said they get their van serviced regularly, over a third only do so occasionally and 16% said they only act when there’s a noticeable issue.
The biggest obstacles to regular servicing included time constraints, lack of legal requirements to have a van serviced and as you'd expect, the cost.
When it comes to MoTs, almost half admitted they’ve forgotten, but fortunately didn't leave it too late for their MoT to expire, while 5% continued driving without realising their MoT had already expired.
