Key insights:

  • More than a third of commercial vehicle owners (35%) travel over 20 miles a day, nearly double the share among other car owners (18%).
  • Commercial vehicle owners are more likely to drive every day (37%) than other car owners (25%).

Research data from YouGov Profiles shows that commercial vehicle owners stand apart from other car owners not just in how often they drive, but in how much distance they cover on a typical day. Compared with other car owners, they are far less likely to be low-mileage drivers and far more likely to accumulate long daily distances.

This pattern points to a group whose vehicles are used intensively and consistently, with fewer short or incidental trips.

Short daily journeys are less common among commercial vehicle owners

Among other car owners, short-distance driving is widespread. Four in ten (41%) travel less than 10 miles in a typical day. Among commercial vehicle owners, only a quarter (25%) do so.

Instead, commercial vehicle owners are concentrated at the higher end of the mileage spectrum. More than a third (35%) travel over 20 miles on a typical day, compared with 18% of other car owners. They are also more than twice as likely to travel more than 40 miles daily (14% vs 6%).

This distribution shows that commercial vehicle owners are not simply driving slightly more than other car owners - they are much more likely to sit outside low-mileage usage patterns altogether.

Frequent driving reinforces higher mileage accumulation

Driving frequency helps explain why mileage adds up quickly for commercial vehicle owners. More than a third (37%) say they drive every day, compared with 25% of other car owners.

Infrequent use is relatively rare in this group. Just 5% of commercial vehicle owners drive less than once a week, compared with 8% of other car owners. This suggests that frequent driving among commercial vehicle owners is paired with longer daily distances, rather than short or local trips reinforcing their position as consistently high-usage drivers.

Who are commercial vehicle owners?

Commercial vehicle owners differ demographically from other car owners in ways that help contextualise their driving behaviour. They skew more heavily towards working-age adults: 49% are aged 25-44, compared with 29% of other car owners, while fewer are aged 55 and over (23% vs 47%). They are also predominantly male (78%, compared with 48% of other car owners) and more likely to fall into higher income bands (39% vs 25%).

What this means for auto brands

For auto brands, this positions commercial vehicle owners as a group whose vehicles are less likely to sit idle and more likely to accumulate mileage quickly. Fewer low-use days, longer daily distances, and stable driving levels over time all have implications for how this group evaluates reliability, servicing needs, and ownership models built around real-world usage rather than averages.

Methodology: YouGov Profiles is based on continuously collected data through rolling surveys, rather than a single limited questionnaire. Figures are drawn from responses collected between November 2024 – November 2025 using a 52-week dataset updated weekly. Data is nationally representative of adults (18+) in Great Britain and weighted by age, gender, region, education, and social grade.

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