Fonterra milk tankers receive dash-cams, new road safety technology

Fonterra milk tankers will soon receive special road safety technology. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Those annoyed by tankers driving on Waikato roads will need to put their road rage aside soon, as Fonterra’s milk tankers are set to receive high-definition, dual-facing dashcams.

Fonterra has teamed up with transportation technology services company Eroad, which will install new tech across the dairy co-op’s fleet of more than 500 milk tankers.

The hardware ready to be installed soon includes in-vehicle driver monitoring hardware, high-definition, dual-facing dashcams and electronic Road User Charges.

The tankers will also get a Collision and Rollover Alert which uses satellite communications to help ensure emergency services can be dispatched quickly if the worst should happen, even when the vehicle is outside cellular range.

Fonterra’s National Transport and Logistics general manager Paul Phipps says the new tech will support Fonterra’s strategy of sending its employees home the way they came to work.

“Safety doesn’t happen by accident, so with us picking up milk from our shareholders all over rural New Zealand, we choose to partner with an industry leader who delivers Emergency and Automated Alerts through a 24/7 Satellite Solution for when we leave areas with cellular coverage.”

Fonterra says the new tech will support Fonterra’s strategy of sending its employees home the way they came to work. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Eroad chief executive Mark Heine says the company was “incredibly excited” to be partnering with “such an iconic and important organisation” in New Zealand.

“Creating safer, more sustainable roads is at the very heart of what we do at Eroad, and it’s clear that Fonterra is equally committed to these goals.”

Fonterra’s milk collection operation spans the entire country. Through its fleet of milk collection tankers and over 1600 tanker operators, Fonterra completes an average of one farm collection every 15 seconds and collects around 16.5 billion litres of milk per year.

Fonterra’s National Transport Transformation manager Malcolm Bailey says Fonterra has chosen to partner with Eroad due to “their innovation across a number of products”.

“Their ability to harmonise these products into an overall telematics solution, that meets our business requirements, will assist us in maintaining our market-leading commitment to health and safety.”