Thought leadership: supporting body builders to deliver even safer vehicles

Guillaume Amigues, Managing Director at Brigade Electronics in France, discusses how Brigade is working with body builders in the country to deliver complete vehicle safety solutions for their customers.

What are the main concerns facing bodybuilders in relation to safety?

Body builders will work on delivering a vehicle to a specified list of technical requirements – these will either be mandatory specifications that relate to a particular industry regulation or are optional requests made by a particular operator.

For mandatory safety solutions, body builders will need to comply with certain regulations, specifications and recommendations relating to that vehicle. This means making sure they correctly follow the regulations to ensure the right safety solution is integrated so that the vehicle meets the exact standards set.

For example, in most European countries a reversing camera is compulsory for waste and refuse trucks. However, there are also many mandatory requirements to be considered in relation to the specification of the cameras used – angles, location, height etc.

The responsibility for compliance is with the body builder, so they are under pressure to deliver a vehicle that is fit for purpose and is compliant. This includes making sure safety devices on the vehicles they manufacture have the correct specifications and relevant warranties in relation to any regulations.

How is Brigade supporting body builders to improve vehicle safety?

We work closely with body builders across the country to help them meet these requirements. We have an in-depth knowledge of commercial vehicle safety solutions, so we are in a great position to advise them on the best devices to use and how these can be integrated into the vehicle to ensure that the overall solution is up to a standard.

It is important to match our devices with technical requirements or the end user and vehicle constraints. We make sure solutions are fully optimised and support body builders to meet the requirements

Does the bodybuilder industry in France have any specific regulations or best practice policies for safety/vehicle safety?

There are quite a few different regulations that body builders need to follow when fitting safety devices to vehicles and this very much depends on what industry the vehicle relates to.

For example, there are specific regulations associated with reversing alarms as well as indirect vision standards (R46) relating to replacing mirrors with cameras.

Normally, if body builders want to win a contract then they will have to show that they are not only matching the standards set for a regulation, but exceeding them.

Are there any updates or changes to safety requirements coming up in the future?

There are two main regulations in Europe that have recently been implemented: R151 and R159.

R151 stipulates that drivers should be given an early activation of an information signal in case a cyclist enters a critical area around the vehicle.

R159 requires uniform moving off systems to be introduced for all new vehicles in categories M2, M3, N2 and N3 in case pedestrians or cyclists move into blind spot areas in front of the vehicle.

Body builders will need to be aware of these regulations to ensure that their modifications meet safety requirements. Brigade has a thorough knowledge of these requirements and are working closely with body builders to ensure vehicles comply before reaching the end user.

What are the products you are finding are most important to bodybuilders?

It really depends on the industry. So, for waste and refuse trucks which has a specific requirement for reversing alarms, our bbs-tek White Sound® reversing alarm is a popular choice. Whereas for construction, our radar solutions are ideal as they are the best for detecting hazards in harsh environments like worksites.

Our award-winning Backeye®360 and bbs-tek are the devices that are most in demand.

What are your customers saying about Brigade and its products?

We work with a number of customers from end users to manufacturers & body builders. They have different requirements and we approach them differently.  

We’ve worked really closely with a manufacturer that produces heavy goods vehicles for the logistics industry. Trucks operating in this industry encounter numerous hazards on a daily basis. Drivers will regularly have to manoeuvre in tight spaces when delivering goods to customers, so, unfortunately, vehicle damage is common. Additionally, when products are damaged, historically it has been difficult to prove who was at fault and whether goods were damaged before leaving the vehicle. Our MDR solutions are perfect for these situations.  

The customer fitted Brigade’s award-winning Backeye®360 camera system that eliminates blind spots by providing the driver with a bird’s-eye-view of the vehicle on a monitor in the cab. This means drivers can manoeuvre more easily and confidently avoiding hazards and damage to their vehicles or other objects, such as buildings.  

Our customer combined Backeye®360 with our MDR digital video recorder CCTV system and cloud data service, Brigade Telematics. The system acts as an accurate eyewitness and can capture footage from up to eight vehicle-mounted cameras – meaning vehicles have comprehensive, all-round coverage. They have internal cameras in the goods section of the vehicle, so if there is any doubt about the state of a product ahead of delivery, then this will pick up information about whether a product has been damaged and, if so, how it was damaged. All of this data can be fed back to the operator without the need to physically enter the vehicle, making it a really quick and convenient way to manage a fleet and ideal solution for the customer 

For further information about Brigade and our range of commercial vehicle safety products, please contact us.  

Brigade Haberler