Cumbria Waste

Having had a look through the full list of what SM UK offered, we decided that the 4-camera system was the most appropriate for our needs. It provided our drivers with a full view all around their vehicle – ideal for some of the places we operate in. We also had a recordable 360 view camera system installed which greatly helped when moving around in tight spaces!

50 vehicles total in the whole fleet. Made up of 24 bin lorries, curtain sided lorries and other HGV’s too. Currently 20 vehicles have the system installed and due to feedback from the fleet drivers and other staff, we are looking to slowly roll this out across more of the vehicles as it’s the “best thing we’ve ever bought”.

A few years ago, we previously had a single dash cam installed onto our vehicles. These were very expensive for what they were and couldn’t record a lot of information. It was a single camera which only recorded what was happening at the front of the vehicle, and we felt like we needed some more.

We were getting fed up with how unreliable our dash cams were becoming, and how little they recorded. We’d heard that something similar had been installed by a company located around the corner and decided to investigate further with the help of SM UK.

We’ve had no problems with the equipment itself, and even use the system when training current and new staff. Each of our vehicles has a ‘Reversing Assistant’, who is an additional person who helps the driver manoeuvre their vehicle around when reversing. The camera system helps the driver to be able to see the assistant and clearly see their instructions on the monitor mounted in the cab. We have also used the footage recorded when our insurance company has had to be involved. We actually found out that more cases than what we initially thought were not our fault.

When the camera system was initially installed, the drivers originally thought they were being recorded and watched, so we experienced a little friction there, however they were assured that they weren’t being watched.

Lloyd, our Account Manager, has been very good. For example, we had a vehicle land with us late in the month and we needed it on the road as soon as possible. We gave Lloyd a call and within a few days we had an engineer on our site installing the equipment, so we could still meet our deadline.