The General Directorate of Traffic this week, until Sunday, November 30, carries out an intensive surveillance campaign of the vans due to the important activity of these vehicles on the occasion of the celebration of Black Friday.
In Cantabria, up to 180 agents of the Traffic Sector of the Civil Guard, together with the local police, will establish controls on all types of roads, especially conventional ones, since these are the ones that register the highest accident rate, as well as in areas close to shopping centers, industrial estates and places of loading and unloading.
These checks will verify, among other aspects related to road safety, the speed at which they circulate, the documentation of both the vehicle and the driver, the correct placement and weight of the cargo transported, the presence of alcohol and/or drugs in the body of the drivers or whether it is up to date with regard to the Technical Inspection of Vehicles.
Vans are, fundamentally, a working tool. Even more so if we take into account the increase in e-commerce that has taken place in recent years, which mostly carries out the transport of its goods in this type of vehicle and that this week will live one of its highest points of activity with the celebration of Black Friday next Friday.
Specifically, during this week, the distribution companies of the national group estimate that they can make up to 4.3 million shipments per day, most of which will be made using vans.
A vehicle that, although it represents 6.6% of the mobile park in Cantabria (30,225 vans out of a total of 454,529 vehicles), in 2024 was involved in 252 traffic accidents, with one deceased, six seriously injured and 193 slightly injured.
In the previous campaign of control over vans, 1,994 vehicles were controlled in Cantabria and 149 complaints were filed. And, in the whole of 2024, 3,025 complaints were made to these vehicles: 1,400 per speed, 767 for having the ITV expired, 231 for the use of the mobile phone at the wheel, 89 for not using the safety belt and 142 for alcohol and drugs.
Keep in mind that driving a van is not the same as driving a sightseeing, even though both are driven with the same license. Vans have different dynamic and operational characteristics from other vehicles that make them different, not only in terms of driving but also in terms of the accident that it is convenient to keep in mind.
For this reason, and with the aim of improving the safety of vans, the General Directorate of Traffic and the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard have established a specific working group for the design of proposals, included in an instruction published last August, focused on four main aspects: mobility, accident, communication, and prevention and operational planning of actions. The aim of the instruction is to improve the safety associated with the professional use of delivery vans, especially in urban and peri-urban areas, through integrated actions.
In addition, the Operational Plan for Surveillance and Control of Delivery Vans has been established, a comprehensive strategy, including campaigns such as this one, whose objective is to strengthen road safety through a preventive, deterrent, formative and coordinated approach focused on the main risk factors: excess speed, alcohol or drug consumption, inadequate stowage, distractions at the wheel and technical deficiencies in tyres, brakes or lighting.