End Lorry Danger

We have successfully campaigned for safer lorry designs across London and Europe. We work with lorry operators to improve fleet choice and driver training.

Our campaigning led to Mayor Sadiq Khan committing in 2016 to a ‘Direct Vision Standard’ lorry permit programme. This rates how well drivers can see the road around them, and we highlighted the problem of blind spots in conventional HGVs while pointing to the good visibility in lorries like refuse carts.

Since 2021, all lorries on London’s roads have had to be at least 1- star rated on the Direct Vision Standard, or use mitigation measures such as sensors.

On 28 October 2024, the scheme will ratchet up so all lorries in London must be at least 3-star Direct Vision Standard rated, or use mitigation measures. We are campaigning for further tightening of the rules and strong enforcement to take the most dangerous lorries off our roads.

We are also involved in freight certification and training, pushing for these positive approaches to be more widely taken up across lorry operators. This involves cycle training for lorry drivers and industry certification schemes including FORS and CLOCS.

And we work with the police on road danger operations including for lorries, and have seen increasing recognition on the need for tighter enforcement.

FROM LONDON TO EUROPE

In 2019 we worked with Transport for London and successfully lobbied for an international standard to make good direct vision the norm for all lorries manufactured across the whole of Europe. The EU subsequently agreed to include a Direct Vision Standard in its update of the General Safety regulations for HGV manufacturers – the details of this are currently being hammered out.