Van fleets increasingly optimistic about growth, Arval finds

35% of van fleets said they expect to add more vehicles within the next three years, up from 30% in last year's survey.

Van fleets are becoming more positive about the prospect of future growth, according to the 2026 Arval Mobility Observatory Barometer.

35% of van fleets said they expect to add more vehicles within the next three years, up from 30% in last year’s survey.

In the 2025 survey, the number of fleets predicting growth fell by 10 percentage points.

Optimism was consistent across all business sizes, with 36% of small companies expecting growth, compared with 32% and 35% of large and medium companies respectively.

However, half of fleets surveyed expected their fleet size to remain stable over the next three years, while 13% expected numbers to decline.

The proportion of fleets that expected van numbers to decrease over the next three years was unchanged from 2025’s survey.

UK fleets were more optimistic about growth than European counterparts, with 26% of European van fleets expecting growth within the next three years.

John Peters, head of Arval Mobility Observatory in the UK, said: “This is a longstanding question in our annual report and in 2025, van fleet managers were noticeably more downbeat than usual, with those predicting future growth falling by 10 percentage points year-on-year to 30%.