Daimler will always be few steps ahead of regulations, especially on safety: Satyakam Arya

Having led the safety narrative in the Indian commercial vehicle market, German Truck major Daimler India Commercial Vehicles wants to further raise the bar, and deliver trucks as a step ahead of the stipulated Indian regulations. 

Taking a bold call of entering the market with fully built trucks sans cowl product option – i.e (trucks without built-up cabin and coach with just a vehicle chassis) – Bharat Benz trucks today comes with European speced cabins, and Satyakam Arya, MD of Daimler India Commercial Vehicles told Autocar Professional that the company would continue to offer products a step ahead, if not several steps ahead of stipulated regulations.  

To be sure, this is in line with a global vision of Daimler Group that by 2030, the company wants about 70% of its trucks globally to have at least one safety feature ahead of regulations every alternate year. 

Arya explained that earlier, DICV offered safety features in India that took care of safety right from the lowest point of the windscreen to the bumper. The company has now gone one step further, and since the beginning of the current year, it has started supplying trucks with increased safety from the lowest point of the windscreen to the roof of the cabins, thereby adhering to the ECE R29-03 safety standards. The upgrade makes the cabins compatible with the latest European cabin safety norms, which are some of the strictest in the world.

He expressed hopes that the Indian government would soon mandate ECE R29-03 safety standards for truck cabin. These are currently in force in Europe, but they are not yet mandatory in India, which is why cowls are still allowed in truck cabins.

In India, even the ECE R29-02 safety standards are not mandated. "So, I think we should now move faster on it, even going straight away to ECE R29-03," Arya added. "This is what we should work on more in India: on how to bring sensitivity to safety in the market," he continued. 

Arya's comments come in the wake of a recent notification by the Indian government that requires all new truck cabins belonging to categories N2 and N3 to have air conditioning systems in their cabins beginning January 1, 2025. The notification is part of the government's efforts to improve safety standards for commercial vehicles in India.

"With the air conditioning (of truck cabins), cowls should go away," Arya said in an interaction with Autocar Professional. "The bodybuilders can still do a steel cabin, which may not be well engineered, and air conditioning will work. However, what matters is that it should be engineered in such a way that even in the event of a crash, the cabins will surely get deformed and crumble, but their impact should not much affect the zone where the driver sits," he added. Cowls are metal structures that are attached to the front of truck cabins. They are considered to be relatively unsafe when compared to the completely built vehicle by the OEM. 

Highlighting the crash related data, Arya pointed out that at least 21% of fatalities happen because the driver’s body can't be taken out of the truck cabin fast enough to get them to the hospital, indicating the importance of well-engineered cabins by OEMs. 

The increased focus on safety is a welcome development. India has one of the highest road traffic fatality rates in the world, and any steps that can be taken to reduce the number of deaths and injuries are essential. In 2021, India recorded over 1.53 lakh road crash deaths, the highest in the world. Truck and lorry drivers accounted for over 15,000 of these deaths, and trucks and lorries were involved in over 57,000 crashes in that year. 

While the move is motivated by the company's desire to improve road safety for drivers and passengers in India, it also opens up new export markets in Europe, for the firm's heavy-duty trucks by making them compliant with regulations equivalent to the ECE R29-03 standards. 

While the OEMs seem to be doing their part in making trucks safer, the onus now remains on the government to bring the strong shield of law.