Euro NCAP announces plans for a new Truck Safety rating scheme

Euro NCAP has announced that it will launch a new Truck Safe City and Highway rating scheme, which will provide detailed information about the safety of heavy trucks.

The new Truck Safe rating scheme will enable all stakeholders in the freight industry to identify and assess the safety level of equipment in their heavy truck fleets. Not only will this deliver enhanced safety for drivers, but it will create a market for safe technology that will allow manufacturers to innovate and advance their offering within a clear framework for safety grounded in Euro NCAP principles. Cities and public authorities will be able to clearly identify the best vehicles for their roads and incentivise adoption and companies will be able to easily determine the vehicle specifications they need to comply with in road authority schemes.

"Advanced Driver Assistance technologies are now standard on most European cars, and they are contributing to more than a 40% reduction in some crashes. Heavy trucks have the very same crashes but don’t have this technology fitted, leading to a disproportionate number of casualties in crashes involving heavy vehicles," said Matthew Avery, Chief Research Strategy Officer, Thatcham Research.

Michiel van Ratingen, Secretary-General Euro NCAP, said: "By examining safety levels of heavy and commercial trucks and improving their safety, I believe that we can end traffic-related fatalities and help many European countries to achieve their ‘Vision Zero’ target in road casualties. A truck safety label can incentivise good performance, allow optimisation of operational safety and cost, and will accelerate regulatory efforts to improve truck safety. European roads will hence become safer. We are actively seeking new members that can invest resources and their knowledge to help us make this scheme the success that society needs it to be. This marks the beginning of a new, challenging, and exciting journey for Euro NCAP, its members and those who wish to join us in the future.

Euro NCAP believes creating a market where the safest choice of vehicle is the most profitable choice of vehicle will be critical to success. One way of achieving this is for Euro NCAP to link with national, regional and local initiatives such as local access restrictions, freight best practice schemes, public procurement contracting, and insurers to create incentives. If combined with a more robust and harmonised framework of technical standards, this will create the buying power necessary to generate the demand for safer vehicles that manufacturers need if they are to combine innovation and commercial success.