Flannery has been supporting the development of the SpillardLive safety system and has now signed off on it being fitted to 180 of its earthmoving machines.
The technology has cameras inside and out, not only to detect if anyone has strayed too close to the working area but also to keep an eye on the operator to see if they are having a crafty fag or on the phone.
The cloud-based platform captures and streams real time video and analytics simultaneously from multiple cameras. It has been developed and tailored by Spillard Safety Systems in collaboration with Flannery to have the maximum impact, with feedback on trials being fed into enhancing the system.
Flannery has more than 5,000 machines in its fleet and is looking to roll out the technology further over the next three years.
Spillard and Flannery have been working together since 2009 and continue to collaborate with operators to fine-tune the human detection system to identify any behavioural changes. These could be if an operator is showing signs of fatigue, if somebody is smoking or using their phone while operating the machine, or even if a driver isn鈥檛 present in the vehicle while it is on or meant to be operational, the companies said.
Flannery director Patrick Flannery said: 鈥淭he safety of our operators and those of our clients using our vehicles is paramount, which is why we鈥檝e entered into this agreement with Spillard to incorporate 鈥楽pillardLive鈥� onto 180 of our vehicles and equipment.
鈥淚nitial results have been very encouraging; we鈥檝e already been able to reduce the number of plant people interface (PPI) risks on sites, as well as identifying lots of ways we can train our staff to be better and safer, especially in human detection whilst operating the vehicles.鈥�
Pete Spillard, managing director of Spillard Safety Systems, said: 鈥淪pillardLive has been proven to increase the safety of machine operators and other members of staff on or around the site and is fast progressing into a valuable business information system when the client is looking to upskill employees and achieve greater productivity.
鈥淲hen the ignition is switched on, these cameras can virtually map out a five-metre 鈥榬ed zone鈥�, a further away 鈥榓mber zone鈥� and a 鈥榞reen zone鈥� that indicates a safe distance. The data for that machine can be accessed from our platform and the live journey of that vehicle can be checked.
鈥淭his system means that a machine can track patterns and help highlight where changes need to be made on site. For example, a machine could detect that a person has encroached into the dedicated 鈥榬ed zone鈥� around 50 times at around three o鈥檆lock each day.
鈥淭his data would then go to an appointed person who would see a clear pattern forming and be able to change site parameters to accommodate the need to enter that area at that time of day.鈥�
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