The company has worked with bodybuilder Montracon to design the vehicles, which meet the EN12642-XL standard – meaning their curtains will provide a degree of load containment, to reduce the risk of loads spilling in the event of an accident.
Other safety features included as standard on new 18-tonne and 26-tonne rental vehicles include: tail-lifts with safety gates; parking sensors; yellow locking wheel nuts; red seat belts and handbrake voice warning systems.
Asset Alliance commercial development director Dave Potter says: “We have developed this vehicle with Montracon and we are now building to this specification as standard... It has been engineered to be one of the safest heavy rigids on the market.”
He adds: “There are greater costs associated with it, and rental companies don’t normally do it, but we believe it is the right standard to have on vehicles to protect the safety of the general public and the driver.
“We are setting a benchmark with our new rental fleet and are committed to driving up safety standards and the reputation of the industry.”
Last year, Asset Alliance invested £20 million in its new Flexi-Hire division, offering medium and long-term rental packages on a mixed fleet of 250 DAF and Mercedes tractors and rigids, along with 100 new sliding bogie skeletal trailers, double deck temperature-controlled trailers and curtainsiders from Dennison and Montracon.