5 Commercial Vehicle Safety Features and What they Do
Onboard vehicle safety features are playing a vital role in making our roads safer for drivers, riders, and pedestrians alike.
For fleets operating commercial vehicles, they bring immense benefits for reducing both the frequency and severity of accidents - enhancing driver safety, and reducing costs to their business.
Here we discuss some of the most common safety features found on modern commercial vehicles, including those powered by ADAS, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. Plus, we explore how fleets can make sure they get the best out of the technology.
What safety features do commercial vehicles have?
Modern commercial vehicles come with a wide range of safety features onboard, including those fitted as standard, and aftermarket solutions added by their operators.
Some of the most notable safety features on modern trucks and vans include autonomous emergency braking & lane correction, adaptive cruise control, dashcams, and driver monitoring devices.
These features focus on actively minimising the risk and severity of collisions, by warning the driver of emerging hazards, and even intervening to correct manoeuvres.
For fleets, this makes it easier to maximise driver safety by reducing the impact of human error, and protect other road users from the risks associated with large commercial vehicles like HGVs.
What are Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS)?
One of the most influential drivers of onboard vehicle safety features has been the growth of ADAS, or Advanced Driver Assistance Systems.
ADAS use sensors located around the vehicle to observe the surrounding environment, identify potential hazards in real-time, and activate autonomous safety interventions to avoid collisions.
This might include correcting the steering, slowing the vehicle, or even bringing it to a complete stop with autonomous emergency braking.
The popularity and affordability of these systems has increased dramatically in recent years, with the EU even mandating some of their features be fitted as standard on new vehicles from 2024.
How effective is ADAS in preventing accidents?
Research has shown strong support for the use of safety features like ADAS. A 2022 study conducted by ScienceDirect estimated that widespread rollout of ADAS could reduce occurrence of the UK’s most frequent accident types by almost 30%.
This included a potential 28% reduction in accidents involving pedestrians, and a 27% decrease in rear-end collisions - some of the most common and dangerous types of incidents in the UK.
Moreover, a similar study by the NHTSA in the US estimated more than 60% of all traffic fatalities could be avoided if vehicles were fitted with ADAS as standard. While this may seem like a huge goal to achieve, it does highlight the very real lifesaving advantages of the technology, particularly for larger, more risk-prone commercial vehicles.
5 ADAS-powered vehicle safety features & what they do:
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems have a wide range of applications, with new features constantly being developed and introduced to the market. Here are some of the most popular ADAS-powered safety features, and the role they play in enhancing driver safety…
1 - Adaptive cruise control (ACC)
Adaptive cruise control builds ADAS into the longstanding driver aid to enhance its safety, allowing speed to be adjusted automatically with traffic conditions.
Using sensors to scan the road ahead, ACC can detect hazards like vehicles slowing in front, or changes in road conditions, and adapt the vehicle’s throttle and braking to reduce risk of collision.
2 - Blind spot monitoring
Blind-spot monitoring scans areas around the vehicle which may be difficult for drivers to see through their mirrors or windows. If the system detects a hazard in these areas, such as a passing car or pedestrian, it can warn the driver immediately through a visual or audible notification.
This is particularly useful in larger commercial vehicles like HGVs, which often have large blind spots to the rear and sides.
3 - Lane & position correction
Lane correction often works in conjunction with ACC, scanning the painted lines and structural features in the road to monitor lane positioning, and guide the vehicle with assisted steering.
This helps to assist cornering and lane discipline when using cruise control, and correct manual
driver errors should the vehicle stray out of lane. Again, this is an enormous safety benefit for larger commercial vehicles, particularly when navigating narrower lanes or long bends.
4 - Pedestrian & hazard detection
The 360-degree nature of ADAS sensors enables them to detect hazards at all angles, such as pedestrians stepping into the road or crossing behind the vehicle.
Applications of this technology can range from audible warnings similar to parking sensors, to actually displaying a graphic of the hazard in its real-time position on the console screen.
Whatever its complexity, ADAS hazard detection brings particular safety benefits for manoeuvring larger vehicles at slow speeds, or in pedestrian areas like car parks or depots.
5 - Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB)
Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) is one of the most fundamental safety features offered by ADAS, allowing for fast and critical intervention in the event of an impending collision.
If the vehicle’s sensors detect an immediate blockage in its path, like a stationary car or object, AEB can activate the brakes quickly and firmly to bring the vehicle to a stop.
AEB is typically most effective at speeds below 55mph, referred to as low-speed AEB, but it’s also highly effective in reducing collision risk and severity at higher speeds.
When it comes to braking distance, every second counts, meaning any delay in a driver’s reaction can drastically worsen the severity of any collision. AEB helps to counter this risk by reacting instantly when it identifies an immediate hazard, protecting the driver and other road users.
In fact, experts at Volkswagen’s Commercial Vehicle division predicted in 2018 that fitting AEB as standard on UK vans could prevent up to 2,500 accidents, and 350 fatalities every year.
The implications of ADAS for Fleets
If your fleet operates vehicles fitted with ADAS, there are some key considerations you’ll need to make to ensure the technology remains in safe, working order.
- Ensuring incidents are being reported
If one of your vehicles is involved in a collision (even a minor bump), ADAS sensors can easily be broken, disconnected, or knocked out of place by the impact. This can prevent them from working properly, and even pose real risks to driver safety.
It’s therefore crucial to ensure even minor collisions and bumps are reported quickly and effectively by your drivers, and that the vehicle is checked and recalibrated.
- Recalibration after repairs
Even straightforward repairs like panel replacements or a wheel change can impact ADAS sensors, moving them out of alignment, and causing them to stop functioning.
It’s therefore vital that your repairers have the ability to check and recalibrate ADAS when working on fitted vehicles, including compatible technology for accessing the software.
All of sopp+sopp’s Activate Accident Repair centres have in-house facilities for ADAS recalibration, including state-of-the-art repair & alignment technology. ADAS-fitted vehicles are checked and realigned as standard after repair, ensuring all safety features are functioning properly and in full before the vehicle is returned to the driver.
- Driver training & engagement
It’s important that your drivers are made aware of the safety features fitted to their vehicle, including ADAS, to ensure that they’re recognised and utilised effectively.
Fleets must therefore account for this technology in driver training, and engage their drivers on its features, implications, and proper use.
The interventions and autonomous features presented by ADAS may be unfamiliar to drivers in their everyday vehicles, meaning it’s crucial that they know what to expect.
With the importance of accurate ADAS calibration, it’s also vital that drivers are aware of the implications of even the smallest incidents, and the need for these to be reported quickly.
sopp+sopp - Fleet Accident Management & Repair Specialists
sopp+sopp work with some of the UK’s best-known fleets to deliver specialist accident management services - encompassing everything from incident reporting to vehicle repair.
We’re specialists in commercial vehicle repair management - our UK-wide repair network can accommodate HGVs and LCVs of all fuel types - including EVs and Hybrids.
End-to-End Accident Management
Our in-house claims team handles the accident management process from start to finish, and keeps our clients updated throughout the claims progress. This includes collecting incident reports, engaging third parties, triaging vehicle damage, engineering effective repairs, deploying vehicles, and ensuring they’re repaired swiftly.
Our self-developed bodyshop management system ensures you always know where your vehicles sit within the claims process.
Commercial vehicle expertise
Our triage, engineering, and repair processes are tailored to the unique requirements of commercial vehicles, and their onboard cargo/equipment. We consider each vehicle's unique attributes and circumstances from the outset, and ensure this data is used to inform the most appropriate methods of recovery, damage assessment, and repair.
We'll consider everything from the vehicle's make, model, category, and fuel type - to the equipment and technology it has on board, ensuring we deliver a right-first-time repair journey, no matter the complexities involved.
FNOL & eNOL Incident Reporting
We’re committed to delivering swift, accurate incident reporting for fleets of all sizes and specifications, tailored for the specialist requirements of commercial vehicles.
Our in-house telephone FNOL team are supported by our self-developed technology, including our eNOL incident reporting application - Activate Initiate.
We recognise that quick and qualitative incident reporting is paramount to reducing claims costs, and minimising vehicle downtime. We’re constantly innovating to improve the speed, accuracy, and ease of our clients’ incident reporting processes.
Extensive UK-Wide Repair Network
Our UK-wide repair network caters for all vehicle types - including cars, vans, and HGVs. Whatever your vehicles’ specifications or fuel types, our repair network has the capacity and expertise to deliver swift, right-first-time repairs, including on EVs and hybrids.
Intelligent Triage & Engineering
Our triage and engineering processes are supported by our range of intuitive technologies, which help to increase the speed and efficiency of our services.
This includes intelligent triage, which uses tech integrations to identify total loss, and understand vehicles’ repair requirements from photographs provided by the driver.
Our intelligent engineering process ensures that all repairs are completed at best quality, and utilise cost-saving solutions wherever possible. This includes suggesting more effective sources for parts when they’re available - including green and aftermarket, depending on your existing repair policies.
To learn more about sopp+sopp, and our range of technology-driven fleet management solutions, get in touch with our team for a no-obligation call: