The company recently invested almost R6 million in its assembly plant near Amanzimtoti in order to install the latest active safety systems from Europe in trucks operating locally.

The system works with a radar and cameras that watch for small moving objects like pedestrians or cyclists in blind spots and can stop the truck much quicker than a human driver can react, even around corners.

Christensson said the systems had been tested by several SA clients for past three years, and will now go into serial production.

One of these clients is Pietermaritzburg-based Colt Transport, where 65 Volvo trucks equipped with active safety systems have delivered savings and can handle even SA’s unpredictable taxi drivers.

Volvo sales director Malcolm Gush said the safety system, which is sold as a package, costs about R43 000, which is less than the typical repair cost of even a minor collision on a truck.

He predicted such systems will soon be the norm, not just an option, for fleet operators. Some 60 operators have been testing the system in SA, and one fitted Volvo’s Alcolock V3 breath analiser to ensure a zero alcohol limit.

After-market service manager Theunis Eloff said Volvo’s proactive workshops do not require the fleet manager to make booking, but use telematic service schedules that are customised per chassis to bring trucks in for service. The workshops have been testing predictive failure for six months and now boast accuracies of one hour.

“The aim is to ensure uptime,” said Eloff.

Volvo truck owners will from next year also be able to link Volvo’s Dynafleet app, which enables fleet owners to check the total health of a truck. The app will be released free to all Volvo owners in South Africa, Australia and Korea in the third quarter of next year.

This will enable their drivers to enter the Dynafleet compeittion and rank their skills worldwide — similar to Daimler’s FleetBoard competition.

Article via News 24 ~ 12 Oct 2017

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Ebrahim Joosab (left), operations director of Colt Transport, Christian Coolsaet, MD of Volvo Trucks SA and Muhammad Arshad Joosab, fleet manager at Colt Transport, which company last week took ownership of eight new Volvo trucks that were fully imported from Sweden with Europe’s latest safety technologies on board.

Marketing and operations manager Ebrahim Joosab said the 32-year-old family business opted to go the fully-imported route because the full safety pack on the Volvos now working at Colt Transport is not yet available from the local assembly plant in KZN.

Joosab said the deal cost Colt Transport some R20 million, but it formed part of the company’s commitment to promote road safety. ‘One cannot put a price on safety of road users,’ said Joosab.

To this end all drivers also received driver training on the new rigs and are constantly monitored and mentored on the road with Volvo’s DynaFleet to ensure they deliver loads as cost-effectively as possible. Joosab said Colt Transport drivers were part of the family business, which was started in 1983 by the husband and wife team formed by his parents, using just an old Mercedes-Benz truck. Today Colt Transport has more than 60 trucks that haul freight mainly along the N3 between Durban and Johannesburg.

The company also maintains a modern warehouse with undercover loading facilities and container docking facilities at Mkondeni.

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Colt Transport Services, one of the biggest transport operators in Pietermaritzburg with a fleet of more than 60 vehicles, yesterday announced the purchase of eight new fully imported Volvo FH13 trucks (above) in a deal worth just less than 20 million. Ebrahim Joosab, director of the family-owned business, said the deal represented a significant expansion for the long haul transport company that first opened its doors in 1983.

He said they had opted for these imported trucks because they respresented the latest in fuel efficiency and were equipped with many safety technology features. Some of the safety features include Adaptive Cruise Control and Forward Collision Warning, Lane Changing Support, Driver Alert Support, and Lane Keeping Support.

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