Great Britain’s sole national distributor and service provider of Yale Materials Handling products, Briggs Equipment, has made the final shortlist for the Forklift Truck Association’s (FLTA) Annual Awards for Excellence 2011. The company is up for the Innovation Award with its prestigious asset management tool, Speedshield.

Launched earlier in the year, Speedshield promotes optimum safety and efficiency that gives customers complete control over their fleet. It directly impacts bottom-line costs by real-time reporting and control of speed, truck efficiency, damage and misuse.

“We are putting the customer at the heart of their fleet with their own online reporting and control,” commented BE Fleet Divisional Manager, Les Knight. “Speedshield enables customers to be pro-active instead of reactive by having a well-rounded view of fleet activity.”

The system operates via two-way communication between the truck and an online reporting system where all machine operations can be accessed anywhere in the world and can be linked to individual drivers.

Best-practice driver behaviour is enforced by a tailored HSE checklist on start-up that provides a perfect, paperless, online HSE compliance record. In addition, customers have the option to send commands to their fleet or an individual unit, rectifying issues immediately.

“We are delighted to reach the FLTA shortlist,” continued Les. “Speedshield is a unique product with unrivalled cost saving and efficiency benefits for all lift truck fleet users. To win the award would be recognition for all the hard work which has been put in so far.”

The FLTA is internationally recognised as a leading independent authority on forklift trucks. The finalists represent the companies who have demonstrated innovation, a genuine understanding of their customers' requirements and excellence in their particular field. The Awards will be held at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in Birmingham on February 12, 2001.