Suppliers play a crucial role in delivering new technologies that can improve the safety of a heavy-duty commercial vehicle (CV). This may be through incremental improvements to braking and stability systems, or the introduction of more advanced active safety features that can mitigate dangerous situations.

Growing interest in active safety has already seen rapid consolidation among suppliers in the passenger car space, and similar movements are taking place in the truck sector: in May, ZF completed the acquisition of a leading CV safety supplier, Wabco.

After a four-month integration period, the merger formed a global systems integrator with leading expertise in advanced braking, steering and assistance technologies. It mirrors a similar move in the passenger car space, when ZF acquired TRW in 2015. Under the banner of ‘mobilising commercial vehicle intelligence’, the acquisition will also expand ZF’s capabilities in connectivity, efficiency and automation.

In an online event hosted by ZF in October 2020, executives…