The popularity of internet shopping is thought to be driving a large rise in the number of small vans and “mega-trucks” on British roads.

Figures from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency show that almost 3.5 million small delivery vehicles were registered in the UK last year, up by a quarter in ten years.

There was also a five-fold increase in the number of the very biggest lorries — 44 tonnes — on the road last year compared with a decade earlier.

Experts said the rise in “little and large” vehicles reflected Britain’s increasing shift towards online shopping, with huge trucks needed to feed vast distribution centres, while the “white van man” made home deliveries.

Separate figures from the Department for Transport showed that traffic levels in towns and cities were up by 2.3 per cent in the past year. The average speed on major roads during the morning rush hour is now less than 24mph and only 15mph in London.

BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions, which carried out the analysis, said the boom in online shopping was being driven by the likes of Amazon, Asos, John Lewis and Tesco, which have all built huge distribution centres to manage the process.

Clothing retailers in particular are sending dozen of items from warehouses to customers’ homes, even though the majority of items are sent back after being tried on, the experts claimed.

Tristan Watkins, BNP Paribas’s UK manager, said: “At one end of the supply chain, retailers and haulage companies are investing more in larger vehicles.

“At the distribution end there is much more demand for fleets of smaller vans capable of delivering orders to strict schedules and the kind of tight delivery windows that consumers are increasingly coming to expect.”

According to official figures, there were 3.45 million vans registered in the UK last year, compared with 2.79 million in the year before. In addition, 921 of the very heaviest HGVs were registered with the DVLA, compared with only 179 a decade earlier.