Agility’s active safety approach
Why does Agility Logistics Abu Dhabi have the safest fleet on the road?
Agility Abu Dhabi is a leader in oil & gas logistics, contract logistics and customs clearance services. Some of the region’s major oil & gas projects depend on Agility for logistics solutions, as do the agriculture, chemicals, defence and healthcare industries. With 575,000 sqm of open yard storage in Abu Dhabi’s logistics park, customers and fleet operations alike benefit from premier contract logistics services. Beyond the open yard storage capacity, 96,000 sqm are available for closed ambient and temperature-controlled warehousing.
Agility’s fleet of more than 465 transport vehicles easily handles all containerised, non-containerised, heavy and oversized cargo. Within Abu Dhabi, Agility holds a preferred status with customs. Ably supported by Emirates Motor Company (EMC), the authorised General Distributor of Mercedes-Benz Trucks in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, this allows Agility to serve freight forwarding customers with benefits like duty-free exemptions, digital paperwork processes and lower tariffs on goods coming to and from Khalifa Port to Abu Dhabi and Mussafah.
The vehicles
Agility has the largest Heavy Duty Truck fleet in the UAE that are equipped with Mercedes-Benz Trucks’ celebrated Active Brake Assist safety system. In total, a quarter of the fleet has either the Active Brake Assist 4 and its latest version Active Brake Assist 5 helping to ensure the logistics powerhouse operates the safest trucks on the roads for their UAE business partners and customers.
What is Active Brake Assist?
Developed by Daimler for Mercedes-Benz Trucks, the Active Brake Assist is a safety assistance system that assists the driver, when a risk of accident is detected, with a three-stage warning concept up to full braking, and which can reduce the speed of the vehicle. It detects stationary and moving obstacles, as well as moving pedestrians within the system limits.
The latest generation – Active Brake Assist 5 is capable of applying maximum full-stop braking in response to pedestrians crossing its path, approaching from the front or moving ahead.
The Active Brake Assist is equipped on Agility’s Mercedes-Benz Actros 2145S tractor heads with flatbed trailers for long haulage.
Safety assistance systems
In addition to the Active Brake Assist, these Mercedes-Benz trucks also come with other unique features such as Driver Airbag, ESP, Lane Keeping Assist, Proximity Control Assist, and Attention Assist.
These safety assistance systems are designed for many critical driving situations and they all work hand-in-hand to provide additional safety to the truck drivers, other road users and protect both the vehicle and cargo.
Safety a priority
A health and safety conscious-workplace is a critical priority for Agility with 84% of its operations ISO 45001-certified for occupational health & safety. To achieve and maintain a high health and safety standard, some of the approaches they adopt include stopping accidents before they start, and using technology to empower operations (Source: Health & Safety | Agility Sustainability).
This is evident with their initiative to invest in advanced safety technologies such as the Active Brake Assist, ESP, Proximity Control Assist, and other safety systems on its Mercedes-Benz Trucks. These are mainly used on their double trailer combination which means they are especially important since these trucks are carrying double loads; serving different clients in different sites.
The servicing and maintenance of these trucks is being managed by Emirates Motor Company (EMC), the authorised dealer of Mercedes-Benz Trucks in Abu Dhabi through a partnership to ensure that these vehicles are in the hands of professionals. Operations in Abu Dhabi are carried out from purpose-built premises with a well-integrated network of showrooms, offices, part depots and workshops.
EMC has been the authorised general distributor for Mercedes-Benz in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain since 1962. From the beginning, dedicated customer service has played a major role in the company’s success. EMC was also the first Mercedes-Benz distributor in the Middle East to be awarded ISO Certification in 1994 and is currently certified to the ISO 9001:2008 standards. EMC markets, distributes and services all Mercedes-Benz vehicles, from luxury saloons to the largest trucks, and provides Mercedes-Benz qualified service with high and consistent availability of genuine parts.
EMC serves a premium client segment in the world, including dignitaries, the UAE government, oil companies and the business community.
The close relationship between EMC and Agility demonstrates the importance of a fleet operator working in tandem with its distributor partner; with every Mercedes-Benz Actros in Agility’s fleet protected with a service contract to ensure hassle-free after sales services and seamless uptime. This has led to EMC being recognised by Agility as the ‘Manufacturer who keeps cargo moving’ and has given Agility the confidence to acquire the Arocs and Atego from EMC to cover the many different applications of the business.
Agility also ensures that its drivers are being professionally trained to operate the trucks with the latest technology. So far there have been zero accidents with these trucks, and it is the goal to remain this way. The motivation of the drivers, however has increased with the provision of vehicles equipped with the highest safety standards and the latest technology.
All of these factors contribute to the success of Agility as the leader and investor in technology to enhance supply chain efficiency, and to provide service excellence to their customers with the state-of-the-art assets with the latest technology.
Mercedes-Benz Safety Assistance Systems
Attention Assist
Attention Assist is a system that can recognize increasing tiredness and recommend the driver to take a break. It increases driving safety and helps to avoid accidents by warning the driver if fatigue or lack of attention are detected.
Lane Keeping Assist
Lane Keeping Assist is an image-processing safety system. It warns the driver if he drives over detected lane markings in order to help prevent him from departing from his driving lane. A digital camera behind the windscreen detects the vehicle position in relation to the left-hand and right-hand lane markings.
Importantly, the Lane Keeping Assist system relieves the driver’s workload by providing warning signals in many critical driving situations. It also allows the driver to react immediately to the audible warning issued from the left or right loudspeaker if the system detects that he has driven over the lane markings.
Proximity Control Assist
This assistance system with stop-and-go function is on hand to help the driver to maintain speeds and distances to vehicles ahead and can reduce the risk of rear-end collisions.
