Features, Tech Talk

Safety sensor ticks the boxes

An innovative solution from JOST is offering added peace of mind for Brisbane based transport operator KS Easter.

Specialising in overnight and time sensitive local and line-haul transport across the east coast, KS Easter operates a fleet of over 100 trucks and around 300 trailers – with JOST products including turntables, kingpins and landing legs fitted right across the fleet.

More recently however, KS Easter has begun seeing the benefits of JOST’s Loc-Light technology, a dual sensor monitoring system to ensure the fifth wheel has been securely connected.

As KS Easter general manager Kenny Easter explained, “When the driver hooks up a trailer and plugs in the electrical lead, it supplies power to the trailer which will turn on the light that’s at the base of the turntable where the kingpin goes in and lights up that surrounding area.

“It will also have a red indicator light on the side of the turntable to indicate that nothing is hooked up. And will alert a beep. Once the driver has backed underneath it, the beep will stop and the light will turn green, indicating that it’s hooked up.

“As a secondary step, the LED light that’s lighting up where the kingpin goes into the jaws also helps to do that visual inspection as well.”

JOST’s Loc-Light system provides a visual and audible alert so drivers can ensure the fifth wheel is correctly coupled. Image: JOST

KS Easter is now fitting the Loc-Light as standard fitment on any new equipment. This comes after successful testing of the product out on the road.

“Some of our largest customers have had an issue across the board with multiple carriers dropping trailers – just from drivers taking shortcuts or not doing a visual check to make sure that everything’s hooked up properly,” revealed Kenny.

“When you drop a trailer, everyone looks for excuses for why it happened and ways to prevent it from happening again. We think the Loc-Light is a major step forward into helping reduce those issues.

“We were retrofitting lights to turntable plates so drivers could check their kingpins visually when they were hooked up, but now they’ve got this Loc-Light indicator light which makes the job even easier.”

At KS Easter, safety is always paramount and Kenny says that having a product that makes the job safer and easier for drivers is a win-win.

“It takes out some of the concerns with coupling,” added Kenny. “You like to think that your driver is going to do all the proper steps of the checking process when they’re coupling. But this just helps to indicate to someone whether the trailer is connected properly or not because the LED light is bright and it buzzes when it’s not connected.

“So, you’ve got that sound indicator as well as the visual indicator when it’s not hooked up correctly, and it flashes red. It stands out in the daylight but in the dark it is even better.

“It will be something that our customers would be happy to see. It’s another innovation to help with safety.”

KS Easter operates over 100 trucks and around 300 trailers – with JOST products fitted across the fleet. Image: JOST

According to Kenny, the Loc-Light system is simple, easy and user-friendly. “I think it will be a market leader,” he said. “I think that for the cost of having it, I don’t know why any new truck wouldn’t come with it!”

Along with providing a great range of products, Kenny says that JOST backs it up with its high levels of service and product training – ensuring the company’s workshop staff, from apprentices to engineers, boilermakers, auto electricians and heavy vehicle mechanics, know how to make the most out of every product.

“JOST is always proactive with any product’s development,” he said. “We have them come around to site once a year to do a training and knowledge course with our workshop staff. They come around and do a refresher training course for any updates that might have come out or improvements in products and processes that we might benefit from.

“And if we’ve got a query or concern, we’ll call Jason Green from JOST and he’ll be straight onto it. The aftersales service from JOST is excellent.

“Knowing how much product we have from JOST in our fleet, how long we’ve been using it for and the relationship that we have, they’ll also let us know if there’s something new coming along that we can trial to see if it works for our business.”

1 Comment

  1. a brilliant idea. to have a light to show the jaw area and a indicator light to show if it is connected properly. so you have two point of reference. dad had it happen where due to wear the levers had returned to the lock position but the jaw hadnt locked properly except for him shining a torch to see the jaws he wouldnt have known.

    it has happened where drivers have come back to their truck and the turntable has been tampered with unknown to them and they then have a decoupling incident. hopefully this system also picks up if that has happened alerting the driver to a dangerous situation

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