Driving up safety with X-Wire from SCC
Safety equipment specialist SCC Worldwide has highlighted the increasing burden of safety regulations faced by commercial vehicle operators, and explained how its X-Wire technology can help improve safety at the rear of articulated lorries.
“Truck safety has always been one of the things at the forefront of operators’ minds, and rightly so; trucks are amongst the largest vehicles on our roads after all, and by quite some margin,” said the company.
“However, for well over a decade, operators have been increasingly inundated with new standards, products and legislation, to the point now where it is becoming harder and harder to know just exactly what is needed to make vehicles compliant and as safe as they can be.
“Many of these innovations are coming out of the factory, such as glass doors in cabs, allowing for greater driver visibility, or built in telematics that mean fleets and individual vehicles can be monitored in real time.
“Still, a lot of equipment can be and is installed in the aftermarket, and this is especially true of equipment that relates to the ever-evolving safety standards that, although introduced in London, have begun slowly but surely to spread throughout the country, such as the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) and the Direct Vision Standard (DVS).
“Indeed, although the DVS and impending Progressive Safe System (PSS) upgrades to this are currently focused on London only, there are already conversations and discussions taking place in many other cities throughout the UK, about how to introduce similar schemes there.”
The company cites Vision Zero 2040 in Leeds, where its head office is based, as an example. The scheme uses much of the same language as the DVS in London, says SCC, and shares the same goal: that there will be no deaths or serious injuries on roads in Leeds by 2040.
“Whilst details of this strategy are still being released, it is likely that much of the products and technologies used to meet the goals of the DVS will be the same ones stipulated for Vision Zero,” said the firm.
“This is of course on top of a raft of regulations governing vehicle safety that have been introduced by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in recent years, such as UNECE Regulation Nos. 151 and 159, covering Blind Spot Information Systems and Moving Off Information Systems respectively.
“Anyone familiar with the DVS will recognise these two systems as being key components of the standard.”
The legislative burden on truck and fleet operators is only going to increase over the coming years, says SCC, so anything they can do to keep ahead of the game and ensure their vehicles are at the forefront of vehicle safety can only be to their advantage.
“One area that has been largely overlooked in the past, but is being discussed more and more in recent safety developments, is the rear of trucks, especially articulated ones,” the firm continued.
“The rear of a truck is undoubtedly the most dangerous area, which is why here at SCC we have spent the last few years developing our ground-breaking X-Wire technology, which allows a camera to be fitted to the rear of an artic as easily as you can fit one to a rigid vehicle, if not even easier.
“Not only will this ensure that our customers are at the forefront of vehicle safety, but it means their vehicles will be ready for any further changes that are introduced to any of the pre-existing standards, whilst also pre-empting any new ones that may be introduced.
“This technology is not Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, RF or any other ‘through the air’ method, but instead utilises the existing OEM cabling in a vehicle to send signals between a camera at the rear and a monitor or display in the cab.
“This technology exists nowhere else in the market and, for the first time, makes protecting the rear of artics both practical and affordable.”
SCC invites interested parties to get in touch to arrange a fleet pilot, enabling them to see the technology in action first-hand and learn of the benefits X-Wire can offer for manufacturers, installers, body builders, fleet operators and dealers.
The company is also able to provide guidance on the changes being introduced to the DVS and FORS, and information on other regulations affecting the industry.
