Global NCAP Fleet Safety Open Day at Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)

NETS partners with Global NCAP to host Fleet Safety Open Day at IIHS

November 10, 2016

The 2016 Global New Car Assessment Programme’s (NCAP) Annual Meeting was held October 26 -28 at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) Vehicle Research Center (VRC) near Charlottesville, Virginia. The Annual Meeting featured a Fleet Safety Open Day (agenda: global-ncap-agenda-demo-map) organized in association with the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS.)

Joe McKillips, NETS Executive Director, moderated an employer panel of fleet safety leaders with drivers operating around the world, who have committed to transitioning to the application of NCAP four and five-star ratings for all of their light duty vehicles. The panel consisted of representatives from NETS board member companies Shell and Johnson & Johnson, NETS member company DuPont, BHP Billiton and the director of the Eastern Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Transport (EASST.)

“The common theme among panelists was that the foundation for their fleet safety program is a focus on driver behavior combined with management engagement and putting drivers in the safest vehicles available,” said McKillips. “A key component of this best practice is collaboration between fleet safety and fleet procurement– but we’ve found that all-too-often, those two areas are operating independently. An important goal of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, of which NETS is a partner, is to get all employers, domestic and multi-national, to choose five-star vehicles wherever possible when purchasing for their fleet drivers and never less than four stars. Getting company safety leaders working together with fleet procurement is critical to this mission.”

In accordance with the event, Global NCAP released the 2016-2017 update to its Fleet Safety Guidelines and Safer Car Purchasing Policy. global-ncap-fleet-safety-guide

Following the panel discussion, the Fleet Safety Open Day included crash-avoidance technology demonstrations, the opportunity for attendees to drive vehicles with the latest safety features and a live car-to-car crash test. The crash test involved two vehicles from the same manufacturer– one with a Good (or five-star equivalent) rating sold in the U.S. and the other with a 0-star rating, sold in Mexico.

“In the Versa, a modern vehicle sold in the U.S., we have a driver who probably walks away from the crash,” said Adrian Lund, President of the IIHS, in a video following the crash test. “In the Tsuru, we have a driver who is in all likelihood, dead from the crash.” On the day preceding the crash test, Nissan announced it would stop production of the Tsuru by May 2017.

NETS is grateful to the IIHS for hosting this important event and is proud to partner with Global NCAP in its mission to encourage the manufacture of safer cars across the global automotive market and to position company managers to buy the safest vehicles for fleet drivers worldwide.

Video links in case they don’t open: