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James Davis is head of commercial vehicles at Manheim: “This idea that we’re seeing fewer white vans is something of a mystery…”

LATEST statistics from Manheim’s used LCV team highlight some interesting trends where the changing colour of vans on UK roads are concerned.

As the biggest player in the global vehicle remarketing industry, approximately 85% of Manheim’s stock comes from the corporate sector, which provides an ideal overview of trends in the used van market.

Looking at the changing colours of vans, there is a general perception that there are fewer of these once abundant tradesmen’s chariots on the roads.

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White is the proper colour for a van after all. Have they all been impounded?

But what do the figures actually say?

James Davis, head of commercial vehicles at Manheim, gives some food for thought. He comments: “Perception and reality are often at odds with each other and this certainly seems to be the case where white vans are concerned.

“While there’s a widely held view that we’re seeing fewer white vans on the roads, industry figures don’t really support that. In fact, our data shows that the proportion of vans going through the auction halls has actually only dropped by 2% (from 68% of used vans in 2005 to 66% in 2013).

“So, this idea that we’re seeing fewer white vans is something of a mystery.

“There are probably other factors at play here, skewing our perception of the number of white vans we’re seeing.

“From our market intelligence, we can say that while the volumes of white vans seen at auction have dipped slightly since 2008, we’ve seen the volumes of silver vans jump by more than 5%.

“This is a significant shift in the colour mix of vans, that may simply be catching our attention, thus prompting us to register new van colours entering the market, to the detriment of your ‘common or garden’ white Transit.”

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