Flogas Britain has installed Vision Techniques’ BrakeSafe system to 30 of tankers to prevent the risk of a vehicle roll-away incident.
The gas firm, which supplies liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to customers across the UK, runs a fleet of more than 400 vehicles and plans to fit BrakeSafe to all of them ultimately.
Fleet manager Steve Moir said: “Being compliant, and safe, is important to us and, whilst we manage our fleet very closely, we can’t be there 100% of the time.
“The potential for a vehicle roll-away is something we have acknowledged but, until recently, it was an event that was very difficult for us to protect ourselves against. With BrakeSafe, we have found a robust and cost-effective way to apply this protection.”
Flogas said it had originally looked at visual and audible alerts, but as they still required the input from the driver, they weren’t considered to offer a high enough level of protection. Whereas the BrakeSafe handbrake failsafe system automatically applies the handbrake if a driver forgets to when leaving the vehicle.
Another key feature Flogas required was the ability to link BrakeSafe to its in-cab camera system, enabling incident footage to be reviewed to aid with investigations and driver training.
Moir said: “It will give us unambiguous and impartial evidence of what was going on in the seconds leading up to an incident, which is invaluable in helping us ensure that similar events do not happen again.”