The UN presented its Global Plan for a new Decade of Action for Road Safety last October, and it aims to cut road fatalities down to 50 percent of its current rate by the end of 2030. The Plan is centered around developing solutions and providing guidelines for member states to follow, all focused towards the goal of halving all road hazards.
One of the things the Plan touches upon is commercial vehicles, which are some of the most considerable sources of preventable injury on the road. To achieve this, the most effective pathway seems to be new and experimental accident avoidance tech.
Stringent Safety Practices are the New Standard
2020 showed us how vital the ferrying of goods is to the economy, and the stakes involved if anything goes awry within our freight system. The tight safety practices that shipping and transport companies adopted are now the standard going forward. This is practically guaranteed by the updated provisions regarding commercial vehicles included in the World Health Organization’s decade of action for road safety.
Beyond personal protective equipment, commercial vehicle operators will now be encouraged to use tech solutions to minimize road accidents. This move is practical as well as humanitarian. After all, as we’re trying to raise the global economy from the mire of the pandemic, we cannot afford the hang-ups of our flawed pre-pandemic systems.
Crash Avoidance Tech to Become Mainstays Aboard Commercial Vehicles
Technologies such as automatic braking are slowly but surely becoming the standard among consumer automobiles. However, given that there is a renewed focus on commercial vehicle safety worldwide, it’s likely that vehicles like trucks and buses will be the first to be extensively outfitted with such tech.
A study conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that crash prevention solutions can reduce rear-end collisions by trucks by more than 40 percent. Considering how much deadlier commercial vehicles can be than your average vehicle, it’s almost a certainty that many nations will require some form of the tech to be mounted on heavy vehicles plying their roads.
Driver error is one of the leading causes of truck accidents around the world. Developed localities that are very reliant on their supply chain are some of the most affected. Drivers may need to consult an experienced and specialist truck accident lawyer to know the steps to take since this kind of accident is far more complicated than one involving two conventional cars. It’s areas like this that would benefit the most from a sweeping overhaul of mandatory safety equipment.
Challenges Facing Safety Tech Adoption
Although the studies point to the efficacy of such active safety systems, adoption of these techs still presents a hefty challenge. Retrofitting existing units will be a time-consuming process, as trucking companies will want as many vehicles as possible active and generating revenue. It will also take time for manufacturers to develop affordable designs that will have mostly uniform performance across all trim levels.
Regardless, there is enough motivation for companies to upgrade their vehicles’ safety equipment of their own accord. The cost of getting into even a single accident is simply so high that investing into state-of-the-art avoidance tech is fairly justified.
With more supply chain issues on the horizon, increased safety may just be the thing to jumpstart the commercial vehicle sector back into full efficiency. The current manpower shortage is being caused by the unappealing nature of trucking jobs at present. By investing in accident prevention, trucking companies would be able to free up more funds to improve the quality of life for their workers.