Member Article

A safe investment in vehicle technology

Recycling and waste management company Yorwaste has invested over £40,000 in new state-of-the-art vehicle safety technology designed to protect its drivers and members of the public.

The company is working with market leading safety company Brigade Electronics to fit camera monitoring systems on its fleet of heavy goods vehicles which operate across North and West Yorkshire and the City of York.

This includes 360-degree cameras fitted on waste collection vehicles which eliminate blind spots, ensuring drivers can carry out often tricky manoeuvres in safety. Other collection vehicles such as skips, and tractor units are fitted with forward facing CCTV, or 4-way cameras to the hook fleet.

As well as reducing the risk of accident, the cameras, which record to a 500GB hard drive, will also protect Yorwaste from any false insurance claims and act as a vandalism deterrent – all of which can lower vehicle insurance premiums. The CCTV has the capability of recording 24/7 and this is in addition to vehicle tracking already on the fleet which gives Yorwaste a real-time location of vehicles at all times.

Dave Clarke, Yorwaste’s Transport Customer Service Manager, said: “Given we carry out waste collections in areas such as York, Whitby and the Yorkshire Dales, where drivers often have to drive down small roads and tight streets, the cameras act as a visual aid, providing the drivers with a real-time surround view of the vehicle so they can carry out manoeuvres in safety.

“The health and safety of both our staff and members of the public is of paramount importance to us and by investing in the vehicle safety technology we are aiming to reduce the risk of incidents on the roads.”

The waste collection vehicles have four small cameras mounted on the sides, front and back. The lives images are relayed to a high definition screen in the cab of the vehicle so drivers can look at the surroundings, including blind spots. The images are also simultaneously recorded to a digital recording device.

The CCTV technology has now been fitted to 80% of Yorwaste’s heavy goods fleet, with the remaining 20% to follow soon. All new vehicles bought by the company in the future will now have cameras fitted as standard, and there are even plans to install systems in smaller vehicles, such as vans.

Mr Clarke added: “We only look at the recordings in the event of an incident and they have already been used twice to refute two fraudulent claims made against Yorwaste, protecting both the drivers and the company’s reputation.

“One of Yorwaste’s core values is that no job should be done if it can’t be done safely and the camera technology we are now using will enable us to reinforce this key value.”

John Field, Northern UK and Ireland Sales Manager for Brigade Electronics, said: “We are pleased to be working with Yorwaste who are leading the way in vehicle safety by fitting our most advanced systems to save lives, provide driver confidence and save money from insurance claims and vehicle damage.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Neil Shaefer .