The council said the installation of blind spot monitoring and tracking technology would help keep the public and crews safe while the vehicles navigated narrow streets, cul-de-sacs and areas that are difficult to access.

The technology, from fleet solution partner Fleetclear, includes a 360-degree round-vehicle surveillance system to eliminate blind spots and Cyclear, an LED warning sign and speaker to alert cyclists when the vehicle is turning left.

Preston also adopted Fleetclear Connect, a fleet management solution which has telematics including fuel and carbon analysis; driver behaviour and compliance monitoring; and tracking.

The council’s systems manager for neighbourhood services, Matt Sharp, said: ‘We can access the system from anywhere, perform searches and view specific footage from any vehicle at any point during rounds.

‘The system is a huge time-saver especially when resolving incidents or complaints from the public or crews.

‘We are utilising the tracking features to ensure that vehicles are completing rounds and accomplishing the targeted number of collections, which is especially important when investigating missed bin reports.’

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