Minute-by-minute control of fleet

A new asset management tool from Briggs Equipment is designed to give managers control over their lift truck fleets and help promote optimum safety and efficiency.Simon Duddy, editor of IPE's sister publication - Handling & Storage Solutions - attended the launch

Speedshield is the second management tool developed by Briggs and works alongside BE Fleet, offering a range of modules in a bid to match customer requirements.

Features offered by Speedshield include: Zoning: This allows managers to enforce variable speed limits around a site or multiple sites.

Two-way commands: Managers control fleet performance and speed in real-time from any online PC.

Impact detection: Managers are immediately alerted by any significant impacts facilitating fast and efficient investigation.

Auto-shutdown suite: This can be used to cover unlatched seatbelts, impact emergency shutdown and idle time-outs, for example.

Les Knight, BE Fleet divisional manager, comments "We want our customers to be in full control of their fleet, minute-by-minute.

Speedshield gives customers the ability to be proactive instead of reactive. It provides real-time fleet information instead of standard KPIs." Speedshield also enforces a tailored checklist on start-up. This gives users a compliance record with exceptions locking out a unit and informing supervisors.

Managers can monitor trucks on any internet-enabled PC through the web-based Speedshield application. They can send commands to their fleet or an individual unit, rectifying issues immediately and can set permission levels for staff using the application.

As it is web-based, machine activity can be accessed anywhere in the world. It can also be linked to individual drivers. Furthermore, Speedshield can be programmed to read existing company ID cards ensuring that only licensed operators use a given machine.

With a control box rated to 90V DC, Speedshield can be hard wired into any vehicle without the need for converters or additional connectors. Once fitted, Briggs' BE Fleet team train the customer to help them make the most of the system.

Knight continues: "The system connects via global roaming GSM that sources and connects to the strongest signals. This way, efficiency and control is kept to a maximum.

Speedshield and BE Fleet are two-halves of a unique whole; severing forever the reliance of a fleet manager on the manufacturer or their supplier for KPI reporting or fleet control.We are breaking the mould and putting the customer at the heart of their fleet with their own online reporting and control." Customers such as Celanesse Assitate, Travis Perkins, Honda,Mars and Nestle are evaluating Speedshield, and Kanes Foods has purchased the system.

Although keen to highlight the cost saving and efficiency benefits for users, Knight also stresses that the company is not sitting on its laurels. "We are already on the next stage of development and in the very near future this technology could allow customers to pinpoint unit locations on online maps, anywhere in the world, locating assets to within a few feet." Paul Dawson, designer of the Speedshield product, which was developed in Australia, adds: "The crucible for mitigating risk is Australia because workers are insured by the State. This has created a lot of impetus to make sure accidents don't happen.

"The Australian government carried out research and found that lift trucks were a major source of accidents. Speedshield was developed in response."