CM has been reporting on Royal Mail's Safety Concept Vehicle
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since it was unveiled more than a year ago, but what has it learned from using it in the 'real world' of UK trunking?
Words/Images: Brian Weatherley When Royal Mail unveiled its Safety Concept Vehicle just over a year ago. it attracted a lot of attention, just as network operations director Phil Murphy intended. As he said at the time: "What we're trying to do is promote some debate on road safety in the industry" Well, the safety truck has certainly done that. appearing at various industry events, gaining plenty of media coverage and collecting the odd safety award along the way.
The vehicle was developed after an in-depth examination of Royal Mail's annual RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries. Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) figures identified a number of potential accident hotspots typically found on one of its artics (see box on p43). Royal Mail then looked at what extra equipment could be fitted to a new tractor and semi-trailer to reduce or remove those RIDDOR risk points.
When the safety truck was officially rolled out last summer (CM 21 May 2009), it had 44 extra safety items specified on the new DAF C'F85 tractor and Cartwright double-deck trailer, above-and-beyond the 11 legallymandated safety items normally found on one of its standard artics, such as ABS, front, rear and side underrun protection, speed limiter, spray suppression and so on.
Time for analysis
The safety truck has been working on regular trunking runs between various Royal Mail network depots around the country. Drivers and depots managers who have come into contact with it have been asked: "Which of those extra items work... and which don't?" The road-going trials will shortly be concluded and by the end of the year Royal Mail will start determining which of its extra safety items should be put on other vehicles in the fleet — either in terms of new build or retro-fitment to its existing truck and trailers.
Feedback CM has been following the fortunes of the safety truck over the past 14 months and spent a day in it on a regular trunk run from Rugby to Swindon (CM 1 October 2009).
More recently, we were able to view feedback data from Royal Mail drivers and depots when we met Ian Pizzey (pictured, left), Royal Mail commercial manager network operations. at the business's Worldwide Distribution Centre at Heathrow. Middlesex. where the safety truck has been working.
Overall, Pizzey says he's pleased with the attention the safety truck has generated. not least from other operators. "It's been an exciting project that's raised awareness in the industry. I've had a number of calls from companies interested in what we've been doing — in particular, Cemex viewed the truck to see how the ground-mounting coupling system works."
Cartwright's coupling system certainly scored highly with Royal Mail drivers (interestingly, the other jointsecond item was a driver airbag). So will a ground-mount system become standard on future Royal Mail artics?
"I think so," says Pizzey. "We're interested in fitting it, not least because many of our RI DDOR incidents 17% involved falls from the catwalks and cab. Ultimately. our aim is to keep drivers off the catwalk. It's a hazardous place to be and if you can keep them off it. then you're going to reduce your accident and sickness rates."
For Pizzey. the ultimate goal is an artic where drivers no longer need to leave the cab to connect or disconnect air and electrical susies, although he accepts that such a system is still some way off, While the ground-mounting coupling system. which features a sliding nose box that pulls out beyond the front side wall of the trailer, looks set to become standard on all new Royal Mail trailers, and ultimately across the entire trailer fleet. it does present a challenge in terms of retrofitting."The issue is how to integrate it within the existing fleet," says Pizzey For the ground-mount system to work fully, the susie coupling and stowage points on the tractor need to be relocated to the nearside of the cab's rear bulkhead (as opposed to a centre-mounted A-frame). As Royal Mail tractors and trailers are not 'dedicated' units, it's pointless changing the coupling position on existing tractors if drivers still need to climb up on the catwalk to connect airlines to a non ground-mount trailer and vice versa.
"For the future, we need to do it on the production line," says Pizzey. "To have ground-mounting, we need nearside storage on the tractor. I don't think we'd retrofit, it would have to be a new-build."
Drivers' favourite
Interestingly, the highest scoring feature by far for all Royal Mail drivers was the DAF CF85's Xenon headlights (part of the Dutch truck-maker's safety package, which also includes lane-departure warning and adaptive cruise control). "I'd never have imagined it would score so highly," admits Pizzey. "But in terms of simply being able to see further down the road in the hours of darkness, the drivers really liked them."
Pizzey would like to see DAF offer them as a separate factory option. "I'm not sure about lane departure, we'd probably wait until future legislation makes it mandatory [from 2014 when I'd hope there'd he a drop in price as it becomes standard fitment!"
Drivers also applauded the Spraydown mudflaps, which use air/water separation technology to reduce the amount of airborne spray coming out of the side of the vehicle. "The drivers have told us that the Spraydown flaps provide more visibility, not just for them, but also for motorists passing the truck." says Pizzev.
Other safety 'wins' include fitting combined side indicator/marker lights on the double-deck trailer that show clearly when the truck is turning, especially to drivers moving alongside the truck. Ironically, the revised rear step on the Cartwright trailer, which features a small platform for the driver to stand on, improved illumination, and a decent handgrip making entry and exit a lot safer, hardly scored at all.
However. Pizzey says: "You shouldn't read anything into the low score it's actually because it hasn't been used! We'd never use a step at a customer premises at night, we'd insist there was a loading bay. And at our depots there's always a loading bank. That said, the step is a vast improvement and it will go onto all future builds"
'Too sensitive'
Some items will not be carried forward, in particular the ramp-approach system, which automatically applies the brakes when an obstacle is detected a metre from the rear of the trailer, "It's too sensitive," says Pizzev."The drivers just didn't like it. it kept applying the brakes and they felt they weren't in control."
They did, however, like the reversing camera and the blindspot nearside camera, activated when the driver uses the left-hand indicator.
Two cheap-yet-highly-effective aids on the trailer have already been adopted across the Royal Mail fleet. The first involves painting the front bulkhead of all Royal Mail double-deckers white, thereby reminding drivers that they're coupling up to a 'tall' 4,93m semi-trailer, particularly as the number of double-deckers run by Royal Mail is increasing.
The second is the 'reversed' height markings on the leading edge of the safety trailer, which appear the right way around in the driver's mirrors. -They love it! Everybody who sees it says 'what a simple idea.' Every time drivers look in the mirror, it's a reminder of what they're pulling. And it's the kind of stuff we can do relativelv simply where the drivers see an instant benefit.
and we stand to get improved safety scores for our took of the job," says Pizzey.
Monetary benefits
Running the safety truck has generated some unexpecti cost savings. Using the automatically-adjustable top cab deflector, which, via sensors, matches the height of whatever trailer is being pulled, drivers have been reporting lower fuel consumption and improved stabilil in high winds.
"lbe jury is still out on the trailer's powered roller shutter with built-in safety stop. "The feedback is that it has eliminated trapped fingers," says Pizzey, "but it's stil a fairly new concept that has not worked as well as we'l wanted. We've had issues of reliability, but we'll continu with it. Unfortunately, the powered shutter doesn't lend itself easily to normal trailers, which don't have their ov battery pack. Likewise, it's not been easy to fully evaluk the trailer's powered landing legs as the DAF tractor IL tended to stay coupled up to the trailer.
Decision time
Since putting its safety truck to work. Royal Mail has added an air-assisted function to the locking handle on the Fontaine fifth-wheel, to help reduce possible strains when pulling the pin. Feedback on this has so fai been positive. Pizzey says that by the end of the year: "We'll have everything back and we'll share the finding! and feedback with the drivers and unions and the procurement teams, and look to see what we need to incorporate in a future spec."
So has the safety truck contributed to safer operatio at Royal Mail? "The trend is still downwards," says Pizzey. "With more than 1,200 trucks and 2,000 trailers it's difficult to definitively measure the impact of one truck and trailer on the entire fleet. But we've had no personal injuries or RIDDOR reports on this truck during the past 12 months, and for me, that's a good measure." •