60% of Sat Nav Users Don't Trust Them for Route Planning

Only 40% of drivers who own a sat nav trust them for route planning, with the majority preferring to use online route planners or traditional road maps instead.

The majority (60%) of drivers who own a GPS sat nav do not use it as their primary route planning tool, preferring to use online route planners or road maps instead.

A recent survey of 3,495 drivers* carried out for VanRental.co.uk found that just 20.2% of all drivers use a sat nav exclusively for route planning, even though 45% of all drivers questioned said that they thought a sat nav would make paper maps unnecessary. This suggests that many drivers expect more from their sat nav than it can deliver.

This result highlights the main problem with sat navs – they do not give you much information about your overall route or the features and road types you will encounter along the way.

The results of the VanRental.co.uk survey show that despite well-publicised cases of drivers getting their vehicles stuck by blindly following their sat nav's directions, most drivers are sensibly cautious about trusting their sat navs.

Although 49% of the drivers surveyed said they used a sat nav, 71% said they still carried a paper road map in their cars and a total of 69.6% said that they used either an online route planner (52.9%) or a paper map (16.7%) as their primary route planning tool, not a sat nav.

Roland Head, founder of VanRental.co.uk said:

"This survey shows that the majority of sat nav users are sensible enough to realise that a sat nav is a great navigational aid but that they need to have a more detailed understanding of their overall route than a sat nav can provide."

"This is especially important for van rental customers who are driving a hire van, as vans are larger than cars and most drivers will find them harder to manoeuvre, especially if they need to turn around unexpectedly."

*3945 drivers were surveyed through a website questionnaire on SimpleMotoring.co.uk between 14/09/2011 and 12/10/2011.

About VanRental.co.uk

VanRental.co.uk is the UK's leading impartial and transparent van hire website. Featuring more than 800 van rental branches in over 400 UK locations, visitors can search for van hire companies in their area and see the branch locations on an interactive map.

VanRental.co.uk also provides a minibus hire search service and a wide range of essential information guides on all aspects of hiring, driving and loading vans.

VanRental.co.uk was originally launched as MyLocalVanHire.co.uk in May 2007 and moved to VanRental.co.uk in July 2011. Ownership and operation of the site was unchanged.

For more details, visit www.vanrental.co.uk.

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