Old habits die quickly with forklift controllers
January 1st 2006

Davis Derby was commissioned by Yale and Homebase last summer to investigate the effectiveness of truck-mounted driver control systems on fork lift trucks in a small fleet, rear-of-store environment. Milton Keynes Homebase store was chosen for the trial as it is identified as a high risk store with the added hazard of having a public pavement located across the yard gate.

The trial commenced last August and initially involved fitting 3 of Davis Derby's TruckLOG modules to the diesel engine counterbalanced truck and the reach truck at the store. Davis Derby was chosen as the preferred supplier due to its ability to deliver an integrated solution and proven history of supplying this range of equipment across the retail sector since 1995.

The 3 integrated modules installed on the 2 truck fleet were Smart Card Driver Access Control, Impact Sensing and Speed Zoning.

TruckLOG's standard driver access system was installed, which utilised an electronic Smart Card instead of a key to start the trucks. Each operator driving the truck between 8 am and 8 pm Monday- Sunday was issued with their own unique Smart Card. When the operator logs on, they were required to display their electronic Smart Card in a pocket on the truck as part of the supervisor's visual check to ensure the owner of the card and the driver were the same. When the driver logs off the truck, the card went with him, preventing unauthorised access to the truck by non-licensed personnel.

The system was configured to automatically cutout after 2 minutes if the truck was left idle. As well as saving fuel, this prevented the opportunity for someone unauthorised to jump onto the truck and operate it.

An impact sensing module was also fitted to both trucks to detect any extraordinary impact shock on the truck and subsequently cut out the engine.

The operators driving habits were monitored on site during the trial to decide on the appropriate threshold to set the sensor to, and the impact level was set in conjunction with the drivers when the system was installed.

When an engine cut out occurred, the driver had to sign for a 'reset card', which created a log of impact occurrences for the site manager to evaluate trends in driver habits and identify opportunities for improvement.

Speed zoning was installed to restrict the speed of the forklift trucks within the warehouse, whilst maintaining higher speed operation in the yard and external areas. In the event of damage or operator misuse, the truck would always default to a safe (slow speed) mode.

Within the warehouse, the counterbalance truck speed was reduced to 5 mph. With an engine truck, any lower than this and it has an adverse affect on engine performance. The electric reach defaulted to a safe walking pace as directed by The Workplace Transport regulations.

Yale's Contract Manager, Peter Lerigo was happy with the trial and commented, 'The trial was successful in changing driver habits and making them safer operators and at the end of the trial, the drivers were happy to admit that it had altered their driving habits.'

For example, when the equipment was first fitted, the driver speed was such that when the engine truck went into or out of the yard, over a slight kerb, the impact sensor activated and stopped the truck.

The operators soon became used to travelling at slower speeds across the public pavement without a major impact on productivity. The operators also accepted the use of Smart Cards with ownership of these being considered important.

Following these trials, Homebase are considering rolling out the system to a large number of other stores nationwide.

The Homebase trials are pivotal to the launch of Davis Derby's new 'Access Control Plus' System. They have demonstrated that access control systems genuinely do benefit small fleet users whom may not have the need for either a full fleet management information system or the availability of a PC to devote to analysing data, making this a very competitively priced access control system that can still deliver added value by reducing damage costs significantly' comments Ian Roberts, TruckLOG Operations Director.

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