C&D are pleased to be sponsoring three of our friends who are cycling from John O'Groats to Land's End to raise money for charities close to their hearts.
Craig Spillard and Carl Falconer of Spillard Safety Systems, and Neil Taylor owner of The Fox at Shipley set off from John O'Groats on Sunday 28 August on the epic ride and we are following their progress via a tracker from CMS Supertrak
If you would like to follow their journey from John O'Groats to Land's End, you will be able to track their every move at http://live.supatrak.com/
A/C No: S00212
User Name: S00212
Password: S00212
Thank you to CMS Supatrak for supplying them with the technology.
We've covered Spillard Safety Systems before on this site. The company has created a very clever 360 Vision System (Vehicle Collision Avoidance Systems) that overcomes the blind spot issue on the large vehicles used in many commercial sectors of industry including demolition.
So it comes as no surprise to us that they've managed to secure a number of new contracts spread across the plant, waste, and commercial sectors. Sales are now expected to reach £2.8 million for the year and £4 million by mid-2016. That's a 25% increase and has in turn allowed for the creation of 10 new jobs.
Pete Spillard, managing director of the company commented:
"We have spent a lot of time and money on R&D and now we are beginning to see the fruits of our labour with a number of major contractors – including Balfour Beatty, BAM Nuttalls and Morgan Sindall, making it mandatory to fit VCAS systems.
Our business plan puts us on course to hit £4m by mid 2016. We’re also coming to the end of a £250,000 investment drive that has seen us extend our R&D department, take on two new apprentices and overhaul our fleet of service and maintenance vehicles."
Spillards isn't sitting still on the technology front. The VCAS system is in the process of being enhanced with new features including a tilt sensor, seatbelt warnings, night silence, and fail safes. They are also developing a smoke detection solution to inform drivers of any fires they cannot see behind them.
As we have explained on our sister site Demolition Training, Spillard Safety Systems now has a permanent link on the right-hand side of both sites. We feel the safety Spillard's services offer to those working in the construction and demolition industries is well worth the investment, and therefore highlighting.
The IDE has made a point of highlighting how well the last IDE Midlands Regional Meeting went on March 26th. Organised by Adrian McLean, with our very own John Woodward in attendance, the meeting saw 35 attendees travelling to Casey Joe's Solihull from Leicester, Nottingham, Rotherham, Chesterfield, Wolverhampton and Birmingham.
Presentations were given by Volvo UK talking about their new high reach machine, and Spillard Safety Systems who we covered a couple of weeks ago when talking about vehicle blind spots. Afterwards there was curry and a few beers.
If you missed this Midlands meeting, or would like to attend one in the future, then don't worry, there will be many more and the IDE intends to keep making them better and better.
At a recent regional meeting of the Institute of Demolition Engineers we were given an insight into the very impressive capabilities of the new 360 degree Vision System by Spillard Safety Systems of Wolverhampton. This very intelligent camera based system, when fitted to construction vehicles, can provide the driver or operator with a complete picture of what is going on around their vehicle, totally removing any blind spots that have caused so many issues in the past.
To me the most interesting, and alarming, part of the talk was when we were shown examples of the blind spot diagrams for everyday vehicles used on sites across the country. From Dumpers to Wheeled Excavators and even Transit Vans, the visibility assessment surveys showed differing and worryingly large areas of blind spots around the vehicles. What was even more alarming was the fact that over recent years and despite the improvements in safety elsewhere, blind spots around vehicles have actually been increasing.
Apparently external issues such as the increase in bodywork sizes due to larger diesel particulate filters, or a fire extinguisher placed by a third party has reduced the areas that can be seen easily by the driver. Even a newly placed hook in the cab by one manufacturer has led to the same problem because of operators making use of it to hang their jackets on, as indeed it is designed for.
More information about the 360 Vision System and other solutions can be found at the Spillard website, along with many Blind Spot Vision Assessments, which better illustrate what is needed to reduce the blind spots on site vehicles. They also offer a service where they will come out to site and do Vision Assessments on your vehicles free of charge.
Posts
