Capital Equipment News October 2017

TRANSPORT

HIGHLIGHTING COMMITMENT TO TRUCK SAFETY

The Adaptive Cruise Control automatically adapts the vehicle’s speed to the actual flow of traffic and informs the driver when the distance to the vehicle in front represents a risk.

WHAT CAUSES ACCIDENTS?

30% environment

10% vehicle

90% human factor

W hile commercial trucking is integral to any economy, crashes, and the resultant injuries and deaths involving commercial vehicles have been increasing over the past several years. Torbjörn Christensson, president of the Volvo Group Southern Africa, says all stakeholders in the transport value chain should play their role in increasing safety on roads, reiterating that every original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in the trucking industry has a responsibility to provide the safest transport solutions to their customers – as this has a trickle- down effect to all road users. Christensson says truck accidents have a snowball effect; when a truck is involved in an accident, it’s not only the metal that crashes, it’s the business and people behind it who suffer the most. “The impact that a truck has when involved in a collision

In a move that underscores its commitment to truck safety, Volvo Truck South Africa has invested R6,5 million in a new calibration centre at its Durban SKD assembly plant that allows the OEM to install and calibrate selected unique active safety features previously not available to the local market, writes Munesu Shoko .

is often very serious and to this end Volvo Trucks is constantly increasing the safety of its vehicles in a bid to decrease the overall impact to all road users in the event of a collision,” he says. One such initiative is the recent R6,5 million investment in a new calibration facility at Volvo Trucks South Africa’s Durban manufacturing facility. The new facility and related equipment allow the truck maker to install and calibrate features that form part of the Volvo Active Safety

Package recently made available to the local market. Available as options on most Volvo truck models fitted with Electronic Brake System, Electronic Stability Control and DiscBrakes, the active safety features can now be installed locally. Malcolm Gush, sales director at Volvo Trucks South Africa, says previously the company had to import trucks specified with active safety features. Local installa- tions started in April this year after com- missioning the new calibration centre.

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