THE City of Edinburgh Council is set to spend a whopping £25m on upgrading its HGV and welfare bus fleet.
Announcing the upgrades yesterday the city council is focusing on improving the safety of their fleet.
The £25m upgrade for the HGV and welfare bus fleet is part of the councils wider £56.8m fleet asset management plan.
Taking inspiration from a Transport for London (TFL) safety initiative, the plans will focus on increasing vehicle awareness and reducing collisions.
The key requirements laid out in the TFL Progressive Safe System scheme are Camera monitoring system fitted to the vehicle’s nearside, class V and VI mirrors and blind spot sensors fitted to the vehicles nearside.
Moving off sensors would also be fitted to the front of the vehicle, as well as side under-run protection on both sides of the vehicle, audible warning alerts when vehicles turn left and prominent visual warning signage.
The city council will also fit all their new vehicles with advanced emergency breaking systems to further improve their safety.
No other cities in the UK have implemented the safety requirements with the City of Edinburgh Council being the first to follow the example of TfL.
Currently the city has a fleet of 152 HGVs made up of refuse collection vehicles, road sweepers, road gritters, mobile library uses, construction vehicles in roads services, and utility trucks.
The fleet of welfare buses includes 27 vehicles that are used to transport children with additional support needs.
These are not classed as HGVs but will still be provided with the new safety features under the scheme.
The council has taken delivery of 70 new HGVs and are expecting more by March, all of which are all due to be in service this year.
Transport and environment convener, Councillor Stephen Jenkinson said: “I was delighted to go down to Bankhead this morning to see some of these new vehicles firsthand and talk to our colleagues who operate them.
“We have a responsibility to our colleagues and our residents to make sure our fleet is as safe as possible. This is why we’re investing tens of millions of pounds into our fleet.
“With these changes I’m confident that we have the most advanced local authority fleet in Scotland when it comes to safety features.
“I hope that other parts of Scotland and the UK will look to London and Edinburgh’s example and follow suit.
“Safety is an absolute priority for us when delivering our services and I have no doubt that these new features will have a positive impact.”
