A FURTHER dip in growth confidence points towards a less optimistic outlook for 2018 according to the latest Mercedes-Benz Vans Business Barometer.
An independent sample of 2,000 van drivers, owners, operators and fleet managers were asked about their business growth expectations, career goals, challenges and barriers.
These have been tracked in Phases since Mercedes-Benz Vans first began recording results in April 2017.
The sample included everyone from tradespeople, service engineers, to delivery drivers and entrepreneurs.
This latest, third phase, shows a second consecutive fall in growth confidence amongst the van driving/owning/operating community, representing a dip of five percentage points from the initial Business Barometer phase which suggests a small but sustained confidence dip.
However, this still means that 85% of respondents feel confident their business will grow over the next 12 months with confidence highest amongst delivery drivers (90% – a slight fall from 92% in phase two) but drops to just 81% amongst tradespeople – a relatively sharp fall of five percentage points.
Confidence is looking down says latest MB Vans Business Barometer
Greater London remains ahead of the rest of the nation in terms of growth confidence with 89% of respondents confident their business will experience growth over the next 12 months compared to just 79% in Wales, 81% in the East of England and 82% in Yorkshire and the West Midlands.
The latest phase also shows that while van drivers, owners and operators are still more likely to think Brexit will improve the prospects of their business (28%) rather than damage it (20%), the gap between the two is closing. For example, in the last Phase (November 2017), nearly a third (32%) felt it would improve prospects and 19% felt it would damage them, demonstrating that the protracted negotiations and continued uncertainty are beginning to chip away at ‘Brexit belief’ amongst van drivers, owners and operators.
Encouragingly, over half of all respondents (55%) say their business will be increasing the number of vans they own or operate in the next 12 months – a slight decline from 58% in the previous phase and 63% of delivery drivers believe the number of vans their organisation operates will increase in the next year (just 4% think fleet size will decrease)
Taking factors such as a growing customer base (53%), a rise in online shopping (37%), and a shift away from heavy goods vehicles (28%) into account, a continuing greater reliance on vans in the future looks more than likely.
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