Putting the brakes on road accidents

‘What you don’t know won’t hurt you’, a saying that most people will have quoted at some point in their life. But sometimes what you don’t know could put lives in danger.

Data from the Department for Transport reveals that faulty brakes are the leading cause of road accidents. They report that defective brakes contributed to a total of 3,894 accidents and 64 deaths from 2013 to 2018.

So, what can be done to reduce these figures and prevent accidents and fatalities in the future?

For transport operators who have fleets of vehicles on the road each day, safety & compliance are of paramount importance. Whilst brakes are checked when a vehicle is Mot’d or serviced, and periodically throughout the year at roller brake tests, there is something that offers a lot more protection, and lets you know when there’s a problem with the brakes.

EBPMS (Electronic Brake Performance Monitoring System) provides dynamic, live monitoring of your trailer’s braking performance and records every brake event as is happens. The information is fed through to the portal which you can access on either the desktop or our phone app.

The brake performance status of all the assets in your fleet are colour coded:

  • Green = Good
  • Amber = Warning
  • Red = Critical

Alerts & notifications are sent immediately if there are any brake problems identified. This allows you to get them fixed, preventing further damage & downtime, keeping your fleet and drivers safe and compliant.
The resulting data is plotted in an easy-to-read graph against the DVSA pass mark. Reports for the DVSA are available and easily accessed from the portal or app.

EBPMS has been included in the DVSA’s Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness, which was written in association with Axscend.