Page 3 - Commercial Vehicle Engineer - June 2021

EDITORIAL & DESIGN
Immediate Network Ltd
Ferneberga House, Alexandra Rd, Farnborough GU14 6DQ
w: inl.co.uk
EDITOR
Dan Parton
t: 07941 979 845 e: dan@inl.co.uk
ADVERTISING
Dan Parton
t: 07941 979 845 e: dan@inl.co.uk
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Stuart Masson
Editorial Director t: 07543 300 719 e: stuart@inl.co.uk
PUBLISHED BY
Immediate Network Ltd
Ferneberga House, Alexandra Rd, Farnborough GU14 6DQ
w: inl.co.uk
SAFETY FIRST
A ny haulier will tell you that time is money, and that when
a truck is off the road it isn’t earning. For owner-drivers or those with small fleets, it
is even more imperative that every truck is on the road for as much time as possible given the small margins they often operate on.
This means that any breakdown, or even
routine maintenance, costs more than just parts
and labour but also potential lost business. But,
as usual, technology has a solution, in this case
predictive maintenance. Using things like artificial intelligence (AI), as well as harnessing the wealth of data that trucks produce today, it is now possible to flag up developing problems with a commercial vehicle long before a driver is aware that anything is amiss.
It also means that workshops can download a vehicle’s data before it gets to them so they can have the correct parts ready and labour deployed for when it arrives, thus cutting down the time the vehicle spends off the road and not earning.
Predictive maintenance is rapidly evolving thanks to AI and will no doubt become even more of a key part of the industry than it already is. For more on this, turn to p26.
The safety aspect of predictive maintenance should also not be downplayed. While it is always difficult to gauge something like this, there is no doubt that flagging up problems in a truck before a driver is aware, so it can be addressed before it becomes a larger – and therefore potentially more dangerous – issue is saving lives. This is just as important as the other aspects such as efficiency.
Another technological solution is helping drivers to stay safe on the roads. While having a wheel come off a commercial vehicle is a rare event, when it does happen the consequences can be huge – it is reckoned to result in several fatalities per year.
However, Wheely-Safe has come up with a device that provides drivers with a warning that a nut is coming loose, again long before they would usually be aware that all was not as it should be, giving them the opportunity to stop and tighten the nut before any accidents happen. For more on this, see p38.
These examples show how the commercial vehicle sector is in the technological vanguard and helping to increase safety – yet it is something that is seldom recognised by the wider public. This needs to be shouted about – the sector needs to build on its current public profile after the pandemic, to show than not only do they keep the country running, they’re doing it in an increasingly safe manner.
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COMMERCIAL VEHICLE ENGINEER > JUNE 2021 3