Work vans and heavy-duty pickups rarely get the same safety scrutiny as family cars, even though fleets put them on the road every day. On October 8, 2026, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released its first front crash prevention ratings for these vehicles, and the results were mostly disappointing. Here are eight cargo vans and one-ton pickups that struggled.
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1. Chevrolet Express 2500: Poor Marks on Both Tests
The 2025-27 Chevrolet Express 2500 cargo van earned poor ratings in both the vehicle-to-vehicle and pedestrian front crash prevention tests, according to an IIHS evaluation of cargo vans. The grades come from the first IIHS front crash prevention evaluation of work trucks and vans, released on October 8, 2026.
That result sits at the bottom of the scale on both measures, which makes the Express the headline underperformer of the group. The rating covers crash avoidance only and says nothing about crashworthiness. Fleet managers who stock these vans for delivery or trade work now have an independent benchmark showing how little help the braking technology offers in a real emergency.
2. GMC Savana 2500: A Twin With the Same Verdict
The GMC Savana 2500 landed in the same place as its Chevrolet corporate twin. The 2025-27 model earned poor ratings in both the vehicle-to-vehicle and pedestrian tests, and the IIHS crash prevention announcement grouped the two vans together in its announcement.
Shared underpinnings explain the matching outcome. Anyone comparing the pair for a work fleet will find no safety advantage in choosing one badge over the other, since each fell to poor in both categories. Of the eleven vehicles evaluated, only the Mercedes Sprinter 2500 earned a good rating for vehicle-to-vehicle prevention, so the Savana trails nearly the entire field.
3. Ford Transit: Poor Braking, Marginal Pedestrian Detection
The 2025 Ford Transit T250 was rated poor for vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention and marginal for pedestrian detection, based on the IIHS summary of cargo vans and work pickups. That split makes it better than the General Motors vans on one test, though still well short of a passing grade.
Pedestrian detection is where the Transit separated itself, since the GM twins scored poor there. Vehicle-to-vehicle performance, which reflects how well the system slows a van before it strikes a stopped or slower car ahead, remained weak. Buyers who spend long days on highways and delivery routes should treat that poor mark as the more relevant figure when weighing a Transit.
4. Chevrolet Silverado 3500HD: One-Ton Pickup Falls Short
The 2025-26 Chevrolet Silverado 3500HD was rated poor for vehicle-to-vehicle crash prevention and marginal for pedestrian detection, as autoevolution’s breakdown of the one-ton pickup results. The truck is the largest Chevrolet pickup in the roundup and one of several Class 3 models tested.
A poor vehicle-to-vehicle grade suggests the automatic braking system struggles to prevent or soften rear-end impacts at the speeds IIHS uses. Contractors and fleets that tow heavy trailers gain little comfort from a rating built around avoidance rather than crashworthiness. The marginal pedestrian score shows only partial success at reacting to people walking into the truck’s path.
5. GMC Sierra 3500HD: Sibling Truck, Matching Result
The 2025-26 GMC Sierra 3500 was rated poor for vehicle-to-vehicle crash prevention and marginal for pedestrian detection, matching its Chevrolet sibling in the autoevolution coverage of heavy-duty pickups. The result covers the one-ton Sierra, not the lighter half-ton models.
Because the Silverado and Sierra share engineering, identical grades were expected and the test confirmed it. Shoppers cross-shopping the two trucks will see no separation on crash avoidance. The finding mostly matters to commercial buyers, who often equip Class 3 pickups with plows, flatbeds and trailers and rely on driver assistance features to compensate for long stopping distances.
6. Ford F-350: Pedestrians Fine, Vehicles Not
The 2025 Ford F-350 Super Duty was rated poor for vehicle-to-vehicle crash prevention even though it managed acceptable for pedestrian detection, according to the autoevolution report on one-ton pickups. It was one of the few trucks in the group to earn a better grade on the pedestrian test.
That acceptable score beats the marginal pedestrian grades of the Silverado and Sierra, yet the poor vehicle grade keeps the F-350 from standing out. Heavy trucks need extra distance to stop, so an automatic braking system that fails to react early enough matters more than it would on a light car. Owners should not assume the pedestrian score reflects overall performance.
7. Ram ProMaster: Marginal Pedestrian Score, Poor Vehicle Score
The 2025-27 Ram ProMaster 2500 was rated poor for vehicle-to-vehicle crash prevention and only marginal in the pedestrian test, per the Jalopnik rundown of the safety results. The full-size van is a common choice for delivery fleets and camper conversions.
Its pedestrian result beat the Express and Savana, both of which scored poor, but the vehicle-to-vehicle grade matches theirs. Only the Sprinter 2500 earned a good rating for that test among the eleven vehicles evaluated. Fleets weighing the ProMaster on price and cargo space should know its automatic braking still has room to improve before it earns a strong rating.
8. Ram 3500: Only Marginal on Vehicle Tests
The 2025-27 Ram 3500 managed only a marginal rating in the vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention test, a result reported in Jalopnik’s coverage of the IIHS data. Marginal sits one step above poor, which made the Ram the strongest of the one-ton pickups on that measure.
Even so, the grade falls short of acceptable or good, and the group as a whole performed weakly: apart from the Sprinter 2500 and the BrightDrop 400, which earned good and acceptable ratings, every vehicle tested was marginal or poor. Buyers who want a heavy-duty pickup with dependable automatic emergency braking still have limited choices among current Class 3 trucks.
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