Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions switches to ‘safety first’ Sprinter fleet
A major drive to improve safety levels for its workforce has prompted one of Britain’s leading utility solutions providers to invest in a fleet of 700 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans.
Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions (BBUS) works across the water, wastewater, gas and power industries, providing a range of services across infrastructure and non-infrastructure projects for many of the UK’s major utility companies. The company’s decision to switch to Mercedes-Benz represents the latest step on its journey towards ZERO HARM, a wide-ranging initiative that includes a ZERO At Fault Injury Road Traffic Collisions target.
The landmark order follows a series of presentations and demonstrations over many months by the manufacturer, which highlighted the Sprinter’s impeccable safety credentials.
Working closely with colleagues at Balfour Beatty Plant & Fleet Services (BBPFS), BBUS is determined to revolutionise its van fleet in terms of technology and particularly safety, factoring out risk for its drivers.
The Sprinter boasts a wealth of active and passive safety features as standard, among them the latest Adaptive version of the remarkable ESP system pioneered by Mercedes-Benz. This takes account of the vehicle’s load status when intervening automatically in critical situations, by braking wheels independently to prevent a skid and thus allowing the driver to retain control.
The Sprinter’s crumple zones and robust passenger cell have been developed through an extensive programme of crash testing, while another innovative feature is the new Adaptive brake lights – rather than merely illuminating these flash under heavy braking, so providing an additional warning to traffic behind and reducing the possibility of a rear-end shunt.
BBUS has also added optional passenger airbags (driver airbags are standard) and seat-belt warning alarms for drivers.
In addition to their comprehensive safety specifications, new Sprinters feature clean, ‘green’ Euro 5 engines, which are smoother, quieter, more powerful, and significantly cheaper to run than their predecessors. Mercedes-Benz was the first van manufacturer to achieve the latest round of tough EU emission limits, which came into force last October.
BBUS has headquarters in Sheffield and its new Mercedes are being supplied by city dealer Northside Truck & Van. Most will be 3.5-tonne Sprinter 313CDI panel vans, although the order also includes chassis cab variants which will be fitted with various types of body, and some 5.0-tonne models. The new vans will be put to work on the company’s various contracts throughout the UK.
“This is a momentous point in our ZERO HARM journey on the reduction of road risk,” declared Brent Mitchell, Head of Support Services at BBUS. “Our investment in these new Mercedes-Benz vehicles demonstrates the commitment of the BBUS Board to achieving ZERO HARM across the business.
“We have delivered a number of initiatives to reduce road risk in our business, and have also worked closely with Brake, the road safety charity, for over years. This has helped us make excellent progress over the last few years, reducing incidents and working with our drivers to change attitudes and behaviours.
“Our partnership with Mercedes-Benz is the next step on this journey. The Sprinter is clearly the safest van in its class and we are fully committed to factoring out risk – what a fantastic combination! We plan to continue to work with the team on future developments.”
