Tradeteam drives European safety study

The UK’s leading drinks distributor Tradeteam has teamed up with vehicle manufacturer Volvo to participate in a major European driver safety study. Tradeteam will operate 15 camera-equipped Volvo trucks over 12-months as part of the Euro-FOT (European Field Test), an EU-funded project involving 28 partners which aims to examine real-time driver behaviour and its relationship with on-board safety systems. The test focuses on recording eight distinct functions which help detect hazards, prevent accidents and make driving more efficient. Gavin Murdoch, Managing Director of Tradeteam, said: “Safety is of the utmost importance to Tradeteam, its customers and employees. “We didn’t think twice in accepting this opportunity to test cutting edge intelligent in-vehicle systems and are looking forward to assessing the results.” Tradeteam drivers will be filmed by five specially-positioned internal and external cameras whilst completing their daily deliveries. Intelligent in-vehicle systems will also record thousands of gigabytes of key vehicle signals data such as speed, braking behaviour and irregular driver eye movements. Carl Johan Almqvist, Traffic and Product Safety Director at Volvo Trucks added: “This project enables us to register in detail potentially dangerous situations. It also allows us to evaluate the benefits of our new accident prevention safety systems and build up a substantial bank of know-how for the development of new systems.” “New systems such as adaptive cruise control and monitoring of blind spots considerably boost safety levels for drivers, other road users, the truck and its cargo. The information from euroFOT will give us a new opportunity to demonstrate this.” Tradeteam, alongside Dutch haulage firm Nijhof-Wassinkl, will submit data over the course of the next year. The project will see more than 1,000 different vehicles taking part in the euroFOT initiative across France, Germany, Italy and Sweden.

Tags: