Vale of Glamorgan Council has equipped vehicles from its waste, recycling, parks, street cleansing and community support services with camera recording systems to improve safety.

It has also fitted reverse radars and the Cyclear cyclist safety warning system to its fleet of refuse and recycling collection vehicles.

All the equipment has been provided by the council’s vehicle safety partner Innovative Safety Systems (ISS) and is now part of its standard specification for new vehicles.

To date, 60 of the council’s vehicles have been upgraded, including vans, mini-buses, sweepers, caged tippers and tractors.

Gareth George, fleet manager at Vale of Glamorgan Council, said: “In the Vale we have a combination of densely populated areas such as Penarth and Barry, as well as narrow country lanes and rural villages. Access and visibility can be an issue and we want to do everything in our power to protect the public, and our crews, by reducing the risk of any incidents or accidents.”

Vale of Glamorgan Council started working with ISS in 2019, when its refuse service switched from a co-mingled service to kerbside collections.

“We were looking to improve on existing safety equipment systems fitted on our current vehicles.  So, we approached ISS and we’ve never looked back. The products and service are second to none. The ISS team are always available and a real pleasure to work with,” George said.

The council chose the ISS RX3 camera recording system, with six cameras, for all vehicles bar its Romaquip Kerbsort machines, which have been installed with the RV4 eight camera system. The footage is automatically downloaded when the vehicles return to depot, via the ISS LANlink system. 

Mike Crowther, sales manager at ISS, added: “Vale of Glamorgan Council have shown a real commitment to making sure their fleet is as safe as can be and we are delighted that they are pleased with our products and service. We look forward to continuing working together.”

Crouch Logistics achieved insurance savings of more than a quarter-of-a million pounds after installing Cmera Telematics Street Angel solution.