Scanning for heavy vehicle safety

One of South East Queensland’s largest construction projects, the $200 million Pimpama Home Focus Centre shopping complex requires 320,000 cubic metres of earthworks.

While delivering several projects throughout Queensland, earthworks contractor Coops has begun working on the Pimpama Home Focus Centre.

A common issue for the transport of earthworks material is incorrect calculation. This has the potential to cause disputes between contractors and results in safety concerns for transporters.

To minimise risk associated with discrepancies on large projects, Coops turned to Loadscan, using its Load Volume Scanner to accurately report on quantities and volumetric measures of transported material.

Coops recognised the importance of delivering accurate material quantities to create safety certainty.

With 320,000 cubic metres of earthworks at the Pimpama project, the Load Volume Scanner provided piece of mind for both Coops and the contracted trucking company.

The technology enables Coops to use laser scanning technology to monitor each truck on site and deliver accurate quantities of material with a visual 3D load profile.

Milos Krivokapic, Project Engineer at Coops says the previous form of measurement Coops was using could result in inaccuracies.

“We used typical measurements for trucks and trailers, supported by cross checking with a GPS measurement and calibrating the size of the bucket used for loading.”

Mr. Krivokapic said this led to human error when changing machine operators as different capacities were loaded into the bucket, creating uncertainty around load weights for truck drivers and excavator operators.

The Loadscan Load Volume Scanner system uses laser scanning technology combined with Loadscan software so contractors can view a 3D colour profile of every load.

Combined with the Overview reporting software created by Loadscan, the technology allows Coops to retrieve, view, sort and edit measurement records. It can also create summary reports which can be generated in Microsoft Excel which eliminates hand written recordings and the need for gate or tallymen to monitor loads.

“Key measurements we are gaining from the Load Volume Scanner are a daily summary reports and even particular load reports, in case the truck driver did not record a load. As the app is very user friendly it allows cross checking and filtration of required information,” Mr. Krivokapic says.

“We gain accurate loading volumes on a daily basis, easily converted to Excel format for continuous monitoring and statistics. It avoids confusion and later disputes due to inaccurate readings.”

Overloaded trucks pose risks such as elongated stopping times, increased chance of rollovers, and increased likelihood of tyre blowouts.

Coops says the Load Volume Scanner has enabled the company to improve client relationships knowing both parties will be kept safe and on budget.

“At the end of day, all parties go home and eliminate doubt if they have been underloaded or overloaded. As always, safety comes first. With the Loadscan Volume Scanner this is definitely easier to control,” Mr. Krivokapic says.

In addition, he says Coops driver feedback was positive as they were pleased with the simple instruction on the LED message board. Drivers said failure could only occur if the instructions weren’t followed.

“This easy Loadscan process takes to maximum 30 seconds including trucks stopping and recording volume reading on the reporting board,” Mr. Krivokapic says.

“The Loadscan makes everyone aware of the loading capacity, as a principal contractor I can closely monitor this and if overloading occurs it is easily identified and brought to everyone’s attention.”