As one of the UK’s leading suppliers of vehicle monitoring equipment, safety and compliance are paramount for Cheshire-based Vision UK. With increasing numbers of cyclists, pedestrians and other vulnerable road users, safety becomes more and more important. The expert team at Vision UK is dedicated to the development and delivery of advanced vehicle monitoring equipment that helps to minimise accidents caused when pedestrians, cyclists, car, van and HGV drivers share the same roads.

Direct Vision Standard and HGV Safety Permit

The Direct Vision Standard (DVS) and safety permit for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) requires operators of lorries over 12 tonnes gross vehicle weight to apply and obtain a permit to enter or operate in Greater London, or operators may receive a Penalty Charge Notice. Although originally scheduled to become effective from October 2020, the measures have been postponed, due to the coronavirus pandemic, and enforcement will now be introduced from 1st March 2021.

Direct vision and road safety

The Direct Vision Standard measures how much an HGV driver can see directly through their cab windows. This indicates the level of risk to vulnerable road users, such as people walking and cycling, near the vehicle.

The Direct Vision Standard and HGV safety permit for HGVs is part of the Mayor of London’s Vision Zero plan to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries on London’s transport network by 2041.

HGV safety permit and requirements

All lorries over 12 tonnes (GVW) entering or operating in Greater London will need to hold a valid HGV safety permit.

The HGV safety permit scheme covers Greater London and will be in operation 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Applying is free of charge.

The Vision Zero action plan and upcoming Direct Vision Standard Part of Transport for London’s (TfL’s) Vision Zero Action Plan, the Direct Vision Standard aims to tackle road danger at its source by minimising HGVs’ blind spots, which contribute to many tragic deaths and life-changing injuries. This improvement, which will now be included in future European road safety regulations, will have safety benefits for people walking, cycling and riding motorcycles, who are more vulnerable on London’s roads.

The permits will be given out in October and fundamentally improve the safety of heavy vehicles operating in London. HGVs will be given a rating between ‘zero-star’ (lowest) and ‘five-star’ (highest) based on their level of direct visibility to their surroundings, with only those vehicles rated ‘three-star’ and above, or which have comprehensive safety systems, able to operate in London from 2024. Even sooner than that, all zero-star HGVs will be banned unless they prove a ‘safe system’ is installed.

In light of this development, fleet operators around the country will need to either make technological additions to their fleet to achieve at least a three-star rating, or scrap their existing HGVs and purchase entirely new vehicles. With the latter requiring a high level of capital investment, the former is much more attractive to fleet operators in an industry with such tight margins. Sensors, CCTV systems, cameras, warning systems; all these and more will be critical in ensuring future compliance with safety standards. With this in mind, Vision UK have developed a diverse range of vehicle safety equipment to protect drivers and vulnerable road users alike.

360° Vision and Recording System

This system continually records 360° around the vehicle and provides the driver with additional visual assistance when manoeuvring the vehicle. Across numerous operators this system has been proven to save money by reducing accident claims against the operator and by reducing the number of accidents.

CCTV systems

Vision UK offers a comprehensive range of on-vehicle CCTV systems that can record up to 16 cameras with options of SSD, HDD and SD Card storage solutions. Their DVRs boast a number of unique features and, increasingly, Vision UK customers are making use of the system’s market leading live-view and remote download capability.

Twin Rear View Camera, Reversing and Recording CCTV System

This system is ideal for small commercial vehicles such as vans and incorporates a reverse camera system with front and rear accident recording cameras.

FORS/CLOCS Gold Level CCTV System

The Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) is a voluntary European accreditation program that helps fleet operators maintain best practices in road and environmental safety. FORS certifies that operators take both safety and green practices seriously when driving in Europe and that you are an industry leader in best practices. Currently, 4,000 accredited members are enrolled. FORS has three levels of certification: bronze, silver, and finally gold, for transport companies operating at the highest standards of road safety. The Vision Gold level system exceeds the demands of the FORS Gold Level scheme, as well as CLOCS and Crossrail accreditation. This system is aimed at those operators who want to demonstrate their commitment to safety culture and who want to save costs by reducing accident-related costs (insured and uninsured), and reduce the number of accidents overall.

360° Vision System for Artics

This system continually records 360° around the vehicle and provides the driver with additional visual assistance when manoeuvring the vehicle. Across numerous operators this system has been proven to save money by reducing accident claims against the operator and by reducing the number of accidents.

360° Vision System for Mobile Plant

This system is designed to give 360° visibility around mobile plant vehicles and to continually record video footage in case an incident should occur and evidence of the event be required.

Live View and Remote Access

This optional module can be added to any DVR system and as the title suggests allows the user to remotely view video from any of the vehicles in their fleet in real time, to access previously recorded video, and to allow remote health monitoring of the system.

This module facilitates:

• Simultaneous live viewing of up to 64 cameras from any combination of vehicles
  
• Automated notification of events such as ‘G Force Threshold exceed’, ‘Panic Button’ etc
  
• Remote download of historic footage recorded on DVR
  
• Live playback of historic footage recorded on DVR
  
• Reporting of alarm events recorded by device, eg: door open, temperature alarm etc
  
• Reporting of system status, eg: camera faults, storage errors etc
  
• Tracking of up to 100 vehicles simultaneously
  
• Simple download of route driven
  

For more information about the Direct Vision Standard and HGV safety permit, visit: https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/deliveries-in-london/delivering-safely/direct-vision-in-heavy-goods-vehicles

For more information: www.vision-uk.co.uk