Inventor's hopes to help van drivers take an easy snooze

Stephen Saunders, 61, from Liss, who was born in Elsted, has set up a kickstarter campaign online to help fund the first batch of vansnoozers for £8,000.

He said the idea came largely from his own professional experience driving trucks for a living and his first invention, the cabsnoozer for truck drivers.

“I do so much driving and driving is very tiring,” he said.

“I made the original cabsnoozer to go in a truck cab and I got asked by many people with vans whether I had made one that would fit in a van.”

Sleeping comfortably in a van, he explained, is very difficult when caught stranded, or tired, particularly with other items in the vehicle.

Breakthrough came when, taking inspiration from a bike rack, he thought of using rubber chocks over the doors to fasten it in place inside of the vehicle.

He has now set up a kickstarter campaign to get his new idea off the ground and into vans, with £1,500 reached so far of his £8,000 ‘all or nothing’ target.

“I hope it’ll reach the target, I hope it will burst right through the target but it’s quite hard to gauge,” he said.

“It’s quite exciting at the beginning because in the first 24 hours there’s a bit of a rush. I think a couple of people pledged within the first five minutes.”

The kickstarter, which launched last week, will run until December 19. If the target is reached, Stephen hopes to begin organising production in India, where his cabsnoozer was made through a Fairtrade workshop.

The finished product is promised to be adjustable, comfy and roll up easily when not in use. Ideally Stephen said he would like to stop driving and establish a business but the vansnoozer may not be his last innovation.

“I’ve got a portfolio as long as my arm of ideas,” he said.