Women take control in the world of vans

31 October 2008

Women may already wear the trousers in the home but new research by vansunited.co.uk has highlighted that the trend has spread to businesses.

The UK’s van driving community is increasingly becoming dominated by females, with a growing number purchasing vans for their own business use or influencing purchasing decisions.

As well as significantly influencing their partners’ buying decisions, women are also becoming more entrepreneurial and purchasing vans for their own business needs.

Females make up a third of the 3.2 million entrepreneurs in the UK and over 45% of Vansunited.co.uk’s users.

More than a third of van owners are now women, with the new breed labelled ‘vantrepreneurs’ – signifying a considerable shift in the number of women using commercial vehicles during the business day.

Southern businessmen are more hen-pecked than their northern counterparts, with 11-15% of key business decisions now made by their partners or wives in London and the South compared to 4-6% in the Yorkshire and North East.

Across the UK younger females (25-35 years old) were found to be more forthright than their older peers.

Katie Armitage, marketing manager of Vansunited.co.uk, said: “We’ve noted an increase of female users on the website.

"Women are having a bigger impact on small businesses and it’s now impossible to ignore the fact that ‘van-girl power’ is hitting the highways at quite a speed.”