What to consider when upfitting cargo vans

From an NTEA member Customers request cargo van upfits for a variety of uses — from service to delivery applications to passenger shuttles. How can we ensure we’re building and certifying what they want? Cargo vans are essential to commercial vehicle fleets in telecom, parcel delivery, and various service industries like plumbing, HVAC, catering, and more. They have evolved over the years, with OEMs now offering a range of roof heights, lengths and towing capacities to help meet different vocational needs and provide increased flexibility in work function. For example, entering a higher roof-height van to work or gather parts is no longer a challenging task. And with larger cargo capacity, modern vans can be used for more than just parts and tool-carrying. Some fleets are turning them into mobile workshops, combination personnel and cargo carrying — or, essentially, do-everything work trucks. However, with van design advancements also came safety changes on the regulatory side. These new safety standards apply to most vehicles 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) and below, including the majority of cargo vans. Interior and side impact requirements, roof crush, and ejection mitigation make proper, safe and compliant cargo van modification an exercise in planning, engineering and design function. In the past, fleets would add covers to the OEM seat for durability. Now, with airbag deployment from the side of the seat, OEM material is designed to rip — allowing the airbag out to protect occupants in a side crash. If an aftermarket seat cover is not designed to OEM specifications (enabling the airbag to properly deploy through the seat side), occupant safety could be compromised. Before adding a seat cover, ask the supplier if the cover was tested with the specific OEM seat for proper airbag deployment. Side curtain airbags that deploy from the roof are also used for side-impact protection and ejection mitigation. Ejection mitigation and side impact have added side curtain airbags as well as airbags included in the sides of driver and passenger seats. These airbags typically come in a cargo van configuration, only covering the front driver and passenger seats. For passenger vans, they will likely cover all the side glass area and rear seating positions. For cargo vans, careful partition location and installation is needed to avoid impeding side curtain airbag deployment while meeting dimensional interior impact requirements. Even though it appears to simply fasten to the inside of a cargo van, partition installation has specific positioning and attachment locations to help the completed cargo van meet and maintain interior safety compliance, including potential impact on roof crush, interior impact and ejection mitigation. Improper installation could jeopardize the correct function of interior safety systems used to protect occupants. Many companies are interested in the flexibility modern cargo vans provide as both cargo carriers and passenger transporters by the addition of seats behind the front row. Adding seats to a cargo van requires skill and planning to accommodate additional safety standards applicable to passenger carrying. All vehicle passenger seats are subject to a group of safety standards, including seatbelts, seatbelt anchorages, seating systems (the seat itself and how it attaches to the vehicle) as well as flammability resistance of seats and their exterior materials. Seats and seatbelt systems are subject to pull tests requiring certain attachment systems per specific OEM floor. Any modifier or seating system supplier should have instructions on seat and seatbelt attachment, and vehicle floor connection systems based on testing with the specific cargo van model. If more side windows are added (cargo vans usually only have them at driver and passenger locations), make sure they meet ejection mitigation requirements. In passenger vans, side curtain airbags (typically used for meeting ejection mitigation requirements) will extend down a majority of the interior sides. This will interfere with the addition of cargo management systems, such as shelving attached to rear walls, as they can impede airbag deployment. When cargo vans are modified by adding extra side glass with the new seating systems, specialized glass that meets pre-breaking and ejection mitigation requirements needs to be used. Typically, a total systems approach must be utilized when adding seats and side windows to ensure the cargo van meets all safety standard requirements after modification. When a fleet, end user or truck dealer customer contacts you with a plan to purchase and modify a modern cargo van for their specific needs, it’s important to first identify the vehicle’s full usage before determining suitable van models and options. If additional seats are desired, the fleet or buyer needs to ask how will they be added and how all required safety standards associated will be accommodated, as this may require other options not normally ordered with past cargo vans. As previously noted, many typical past modifications now have added complexity due to new safety standard requirements and safety system options fleets choose to add. Asking specific questions on how the modified cargo van will meet safety standards can help determine which component system and installation partners will help provide a safe, compliant vehicle for customer employees to operate and perform tasks. A modern cargo van offers a wide variety of usage options, but care and planning are required to ensure correct modification for intended use.

What to consider when upfitting cargo vans

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