Most modern passenger vehicles come standard with a range of advanced driver-assistance technologies, including automatic emergency braking and forward collision warnings. Those features help make people safer on the roads, and they are required for vehicles to achieve top crash-test ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
Commercial vehicles haven’t traditionally been held to the same standards, and many lack the newer driver-assistance features. The IIHS recently started testing heavy-duty models, and its findings show that there’s plenty of room for improvement.
IIHS President David Harkey said, “These results are a wake-up call for commercial vehicle makers. Front crash prevention is especially important for these larger, heavier vans and trucks because of the danger they pose to other road users.”
Cargo vans were the only commercial vehicles to obtain Good ratings in the tests, though Marginal and Poor scores were common across the board of vans and trucks.
Only one model performed well enough to earn a Good score in the vehicle-to-vehicle crash-prevention test: The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 2500. The Chevrolet BrightDrop 400 and Rivian RCV-Delivery 500 electric vans were the only models to receive a Good score in the pedestrian crash-prevention test.
The long-running Chevrolet Express 2500 and GMC Savana 2500 vans earned Poor scores in vehicle-to-vehicle and pedestrian crash-avoidance testing because they lack automatic emergency braking, the IIHS notes. Each only offers an optional forward collision warning system.
Some vans provided decent emergency stopping power but failed to warn the driver with enough time to react.
The IIHS said that 6,215 people died in crashes that involved heavy- and medium-duty vehicles in 2024, 16% of all road fatalities. The organization wants to reduce that number 30% by 2030 and said that it would continue to expand ratings for Class 3 vehicles (10,001 to 14,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating) over the next few years.
Future testing requirements will include headlight performance and rear automatic emergency braking. See the complete list of IIHS ratings for cargo vans and Class 3 pickups.
