Valuable safety comparison now available for commercial van operators
As online shopping and home deliveries continue to surge – driving an increased level of commercial van movements, Australasia’s independent voice on vehicle safety, ANCAP SAFETY, has today released its second round of comparative results evaluating the availability and performance of active safety systems across a range of goods-carrying commercial vans.
This release follows on from the inaugural van comparison results published in December 2020 and includes updated assessments of the Mercedes-Benz Vito and Iveco Daily acknowledging specification upgrades introduced to the market since the initial comparison was released. This latest report also includes analysis of the LDV Deliver 9 and newly-released Hyundai Staria-Load – providing an up-to-date summary of collision avoidance specification and capability for a total of 16 commercial vans^.
“This analysis provides added value to fleet and commercial van operators as it extends beyond ANCAP’s traditional star rating program to shine a light on the active safety performance of an important segment,” said ANCAP Chief Executive Officer, Carla Hoorweg.
“Vans are a workplace. Their increased on-road exposure and frequent use in built-up urban areas means they interact with a large number of other vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. It is essential that fleet and van operators are aware of the crash avoidance capabilities and active safety features fitted to their vehicles.”
“To help fleet, business and private consumers make informed purchasing decisions across this section of the market we’ve assessed the performance of the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) available across a range of commercial vans, and those results are now available in an updated quick-glance comparison report.”
Setting a new benchmark for availability and performance of ADAS across the van market, the newly-released Hyundai Staria-Load performed very well in all areas and earned the first PLATINUM level of crash avoidance with a score of 90%. Toward the other end of the scale, the modest active safety technology fitted to the LDV Deliver 9 was put through its paces and delivered a BRONZE score of 27%.
Building on the results of the 2020 analysis, the updated Mercedes-Benz Vito (from January 2021) joins the Toyota HiAce and Ford Transit in achieving a GOLD level of crash avoidance performance. The improved specification elevated the Vito’s score from 23% (BRONZE) to 61% (GOLD) through the standard inclusion of car, pedestrian and cyclist-detecting autonomous emergency braking, lane departure warning and blind spot monitoring systems.
The Iveco Daily (from February 2021) has also since gained autonomous emergency braking (car-to-car), a driver monitoring system and seat belt reminders for the driver and passenger as standard, increasing its score from 6% (NOT RECOMMENDED) to 24% (BRONZE).
Five vans retained their SILVER ranking, four achieved BRONZE and three remain as NOT RECOMMENDED due to their lack of active safety systems.
“The information provided in this latest comparison report highlights the differences in safety specification and the varying levels of active safety performance across van models. It is encouraging to see the full suite of active safety features now standard in a number of vans and we encourage brands to continue updating the safety specification of their vans as they would with passenger vehicles,” Ms Hoorweg said.
