Volvo truck safely into ‘Freight in the City’
Additional safety features to aid truck drivers in busy city traffic on display at Ally Pally
A NEWLY-bodied FE LEC (low-entry cab) and an FM tipper with additional safety features to aid drivers in busy city traffic were the focus of Volvo Trucks’ stand at last week’s ‘Freight in the City’ event at London’s Alexandra Palace.
The FE LEC was fitted with a Thompson steel tipper body with a Palfinger Epsilon grab, while the FM 8x4 with PPG-insulated tipper body was in the high-visibility livery of the Metropolitan Police, as it is currently being used to help reduce accidents in London through the ‘Exchanging Places’ cycle programme.
Volvo Trucks say they chose to support ‘Freight in the City’ because of their close involvement in working with urban operators to deliver transport solutions that help reduce vehicle whole-life operating costs, lower emissions (including noise), assist compliance and keep drivers, cyclists and pedestrians safe.
The Construction Logistics and Cyclist Safety (CLOCS) report published in 2013 by Transport Research Laboratory found that blind spots on construction vehicles could be larger than those on general haulage vehicles and there was no common standard for the industry to work to in order to manage work-related road safety.
As a consequence, in order to provide the driver with optimum direct vision in an urban environment, Volvo Trucks have initiated several additional safety features for city traffic, including lower windows fitted in the passenger door on the Volvo FL or FE (available to order) and a lower additional window (available to retro-fit) on the passenger door of the Volvo FM/FMX.
Moreover, as drifting out of lane is a common cause of many serious accidents in urban traffic, as from this month these trucks will also have the option of Lane Keeping Support, which tracks road markings with a camera and alerts the driver should he/she unintentionally cross them.
Side vision can also be improved by the fitment of electric mirrors, additional cameras, sensors and graphics, which are available via Roadcrew, Volvo Group’s aftermarket products and services subsidiary, through Volvo dealerships nationwide.
‘Volvo’s own research tells us that up to 90% of road accidents are driver-related, which means we need technologies that aid and assist the human factor if we are to reduce injuries and fatalities,’ said John Comer, product marketing manager at Volvo Group Trucks UK & Ireland.
