Trucks
Trucks
One of the benefits of having increasingly connected vehicles is the ability to set up safety zones, where connected technology helps adapt the truck’s behavior to make things safer for everyone in and around the vehicle. Now, Volvo Trucks has made its Safety Zones service available to its customers, via Volvo Connect.
In a nutshell, the Safety Zones service is an add-on to the Positioning service that allows fleet managers to create zones – up to 300 per vehicle – in areas where it’s considered better, and safer, for a truck’s speed to be restricted. If a safety zone is active, the truck can’t accelerate above a set speed limit in that area. At the same time, the driver is alerted via the instrument display that the safety zone’s speed limit is now in effect. The service applies the truck’s auxiliary brakes when it enters the safety zone, smoothly reducing the speed of the vehicle so that it ends up driving within the zone’s speed limit.
Safety zones work via geofencing – a type of technology which allows virtual zones, or geofences, to be drawn onto digital maps. As connected devices or vehicles move around and interact with these zones, the geofencing systems monitor them as they enter, leave, or operate within the zone. Then, actions can be triggered whether that involves digital information being sent and recorded, or a real-life event like a speed limit being imposed upon a vehicle being driven into the zone.
Geofences are suitable for a range of purposes, most of them information-based. But they are also useful for practical applications too, from determining where electric scooters can be parked to influencing how heavy vehicles can be driven. And that’s precisely what happens with Safety Zones.
The service has been designed to work with cruise control, I-See and other functions which limit the truck’s speed in certain circumstances. And as well as helping the driver to maintain a safe speed in these sensitive areas, the service also keeps a full record of when the truck entered and left the area, as well as any attempts to take it above the set speed limit.
The aim of the service is to make the traffic environment safer. A typical application for the Safety Zones service could be in an area like a construction site or a harbor, where there’s a lot of foot traffic around. Lower speeds in these areas can reduce the risk of accidents considerably.
However, it can also reduce stress for the driver. Since they no longer have the possibility to drive over the limit imposed by the Safety Zone, any pressure to hurry an assignment and drive faster than they should is removed, with the pace of the assignment set by the zone. Responsibility for the driver arriving on time is therefore placed with the fleet manager instead. So, as well as assisting safe driving, this can grant drivers the time to do their jobs properly and safely. Rather than being an unwelcome intrusion into their driving habits, it calls for a greater understanding of the care and attention required to work in a safe and responsible manner.
The technology allows Safety Zones to be trialed in other use cases – like limiting the speed of a truck when driving past road workers, or when driving over weaker or older bridges and so on, to reduce wear and tear. Another potential benefit of Safety Zones is that reducing speed and keeping a steady speed without unnecessary acceleration reduces fuel consumption, as well as wear and tear on the truck.
What if driving a vehicle at a set speed actually puts the driver at risk of accident or injury, for example, if they need to get out of the way fast? Fortunately the Safety Zone function can be overridden by accelerator kickdown – meaning a sudden, sharp push on the accelerator. As well as granting the driver the ability to override the safety zone, due to the nature of the service, the data is all recorded too: providing details of what happened and when. This also enables a dialogue between the fleet manager and the driver, which again promotes better understanding of the complex requirements of safe driving and the vital importance of driver expertise. After all, the primary safety system in any truck is the driver.
It's important to note that monitoring vehicles and controlling drivers’ and vehicles’ behavior must be done in full compliance with applicable data privacy laws. Geofencing technology should only be used where it is lawful and where the required compliance steps, such as informing the driver, have been put in place.
You can learn more about Safety Zones here or contact your dealer for more information.
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