Driver, Jack Palfreman, and Fleet Maintenance Manager, Clive Gallivan, at ALDI supermarkets in the United Kingdom share how our Guardian solution is helping them to address safety risks and better support their drivers. With a 24-hour operation and various shift patterns, fatigue and distraction are key challenges for ALDI which the Guardian system can detect and alert them to.

Professor Mike Lenné, Chief Safety Officer at Seeing Machines, explains how we combine leading technology – underpinned by decades of Human Factors research – and human intervention from our Guardian Centre to manage risk in real time.

Discover how ALDI is enhancing safety for their drivers and operations with Guardian by watching the video or reading the transcript below.

Video Transcript

Narrator 0:00 – 0:11
For Jack Palfreman, a typical work shift often means early mornings and then long days spent behind the wheel delivering supplies to ALDI supermarkets throughout the east of England.

Jack Palfreman 0:11 – 0:20
I’ve been driving for ALDI for 2 and a half years. Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Bedford and the North and East of London.

Narrator 0:20 – 0:27
It’s a big route and driving a fully loaded truck a big responsibility with little margin for error.

Jack Palfreman 0:27 – 0:33
It’s a tricky job and it can be a very dangerous job if precautions are not taken.

Narrator 0:33 – 0:43
Helping Jack do his job safely and keeping other road users safe in the process is this fatigue and distraction detection device on his dashboard called Guardian.

Jack Palfreman 0:43 – 0:47
It checks up on our fatigue and tiredness and also can pick up on distractions.

Narrator 0:47 – 1:03
The Guardian system developed by Australian technology company Seeing Machines and installed in more than 60,000 trucks globally delivers real-time alerts to help protect professional drivers and commercial fleets.

Mike Lenné 1:03 – 1:09
We measure behaviours that are scientifically linked to the occurrence of fatigue in real time.

Narrator 1:09 – 1:13
Professor Mike Lenné is Chief Safety Officer at Seeing Machines.

Mike Lenné 1:13 – 1:30
The experience of the driver is tailored to the risk that they may be exposed to at any point in time. So distraction, for example, the driver will receive um an auditory alert, so a sound, a tone in combination with a visual alert, an icon. For fatigue, it’s a vibration motor under the driver’s seat.

Narrator 1:30 – 1:38
And it’s here at the Guardian Monitoring Centre where tens of thousands of those potentially fatal events are tracked every day.

Mike Lenné 1:38 – 1:46
Events are coming in off the trucks. They’re being reviewed and we’re communicating back to our customers in real time, which means risk is being managed in real time.

Narrator 1:46 – 1:56
According to Seeing Machines, the combination of technology and human intervention has been scientifically proven to reduce fatigue-related driving events by more than 94%.

Clive Gallivan 1:56 – 2:03
Because we run a 24-hour system here of many different shifts, uh there’s a very good high possibility of fatigue.

Narrator 2:03 – 2:06
Clive Gallivan is Fleet Maintenance Manager at ALDI.

Clive Gallivan 2:06 – 2:18
With the Guardians, it could highlight an issue that the driver’s got that they don’t know and we can address that. We can take the driver off the road. We can rechange his times. There’s lots of opportunities to take there with the Guardian being fitted to the truck.

Guardian video 2:18 – 2:21
Distraction isn’t always obvious.

Narrator 2:21 – 2:33
With mobile phones increasingly competing for drivers’ attention, Seeing Machines is rolling out new advanced capability as part of its Guardian system to track every time a driver glances off the road.

Guardian video 2:33 – 2:36
Guardian will alert the driver that they are distracted.

Mike Lenné 2:36 – 2:42
It’s a much broader range of protection covering the behaviours that we are seeing on the roads around the world today.

Narrator 2:42 – 2:45
Back on the road with Jack Palfreman.

Jack Palfreman 2:45 – 3:02
When I was going out on my own driving, it was quite hard to get adjusted to my current shift pattern. If I didn’t get enough sleep one night, then I would be yawning or tilting my head back and the Guardian Live would send a warning or make an alarm sound to say that I was potentially falling asleep.

Narrator 3:02 – 3:09
But thanks to Guardian’s alerts and ongoing support from his supervisors, Jack says he’s become a safer driver.

Jack Palfreman 3:09 – 3:14
I’ve managed to get the fatigue down, getting plenty of rest, and the Guardian Live doesn’t go off.

Clive Gallivan 3:14 – 3:20
We feel safer that their drivers are out there now with this fitted, it’s going to be better for them and better for us.

Narrator 3:20 – 3:39
And now with distraction detection technology becoming mandatory in all vehicles across Europe and as regulations tighten in the United States, Seeing Machines says the Guardian system has real potential to not only create better drivers, but reduce the number of road fatalities right around the world.

Mike Lenné 3:39 – 3:51
You have to study how people behave in the real world. You have to study how drowsiness and distraction unfold. And you have to study how people respond to warnings. And that’s essentially the philosophy that drives the design of our product and service.

Jack Palfreman 3:51 – 3:57
If I can get home safe, other road users are safe maneuvering the traveling around me, then it’s a good feeling.