Capital Equipment News January 2018

TRANSPORT & LOGISTICS NEWS

Shell SA announces 2017 branded distributor driver of the year Shell Commercial Fuels South Africa has announced the winners of its 2017 Trucker of the Year competition.

“The Shell Branded Distributor Driver of the year competition is a Shell initiative aimed at developing excellent driving skills from our distributors. Every month our driv- er’s performance is tracked using a proactive and reactive criterion. Positive and negative scores are monitored to ensure that we have a full understanding of where corrective intervention is needed,” says Imraan Ally, Shell SA Health, Security, Safety and Envi- ronment (HSSE) manager. Drivers that do not perform well are re- trained by the driver trainers to reinforce the right behaviours and only the top two drivers from each distributor enter the finals. “The initiative is in line with our strategy of Goal Zero that promotes no harm to people, the environment and assets,” says Nischal Sancho, Shell SA Trading and Supply Prod- ucts Manager. “Our mission is to foster a cul- ture that ensures that each of our distributor drivers go home safely to their families, and They spend days or even weeks in their truck. Most of the time, long-distance truck drivers are exposed to poor light conditions in their cab. During winter in particular, the darkness restricts the alertness and well- being of truck drivers. This therefore begs the question whether special lighting in the cab could help to ensure that drivers remain fit and alert. To this end, at the start of this year a research team at Daimler AG investigated the effects of having additional light in the cab during the darkness of winter in Finland. Eight test drivers simulated the daily work routine of a trucker over a period of two weeks. For one week they were on the road in a Mercedes-Benz Actros TopFit truck without additional lighting (the “reference truck”), and for the other week in a TopFit truck with Daylight+. This is fitted with three light applications which illuminate the cab with lighting simi- lar to daylight: first of all a light alarm which simulates sunrise; secondly a light shower in which the driver can “fill up” with 30 minutes of artificial daylight before and after a trip; and thirdly Daylight+ as a supplement to daylight while driving. The study primarily focused on tolerance of the light, sleep qual- ity and the performance of the drivers. The results have now been assessed: the adaptive Daylight+ was able to treble the daily dose of light while driving. Together

The initiative is in line with Shell SA’s strategy of Goal Zero that promotes no harm to people, the environment and assets.

to help reduce the carnage that occurs daily on our roads. As of October 2017, our results have shown that we have achieved 1 764 days of Goal Zero with our distributors and 1 036 days of Goal Zero results for products.” The competition consisted of five challenging events that included: first aid and firefighting handling tests, a written

theory exam, completing an obstacle course and on road driving assessment. The events took place over two days and the first prize of R15 000 was awarded to Pieter Jacobs (Sebokeng Fuels), the second prize of R10 000 to Terrence Geduld (Moov) and the third prize of R5 000 went to Lionel Bergman (Triangle Petroleum). b

Daylight+ improves alertness of truck drivers

The adaptive Daylight+ is able to treble the daily dose of light while driving

is clear from this that the drivers generally showed different levels of alertness. How- ever, all of the test subjects were more alert with Daylight+ than in the reference truck without lighting. In terms of minutes, thanks to Daylight+ it was possible to reduce the inattentive peri- od of driving from 44 minutes to 18 minutes on average. Of particular note is the fact that the inattentiveness of the drivers did not increase in the afternoon when the cab was illuminated with Daylight+. As such it was possible to avoid the typical “afternoon slump”. b

with the light showers before and after a trip, it was possible to increase the light dose received in the cab more than five-fold compared with a normal daily dose. With Daylight+, the brightness in the cab is con- tinually adjusted to the outside conditions by means of a sensor. As a result, the daily light dose can be increased significantly without dazzling the driver. Dr Michael Schrauf, an internationally renowned expert on measuring brain waves, recorded brain activity by means of elec- troencephalogram (EEG) in order to identify inattentiveness during periods of driving. It

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS JANUARY 2018 35