Plymouth Councillor Brian Vincent, Cabinet member for the Environment, with one of the vehicles fitted with a camera

Plymouth City Council has installed cameras on its fleet of waste collection vehicles to protect drivers and the council from ‘bogus insurance claims’.

The four-way cameras have been fitted following a 12-month trial, during which the number of accident and damage claims fell.

According to the council, in the two years before the trial cameras were installed, there were 92 and 96 insurance claims made respectively. However in 2012/13 (during the trial) this number fell to 72, and for 2013/14, this dropped again to 65 claims.

The council has said the system can help it investigate ‘accidents, near misses and aggressive behaviour from the public’, protect vehicle drivers and operatives, and save costs.

As well as acting as an insurance guard, the cameras will also assist in monitoring the current collection system and identifying any improvement work that can be made, such as ensuring the workloads and rounds are even, that the collection routes used are the shortest/most efficient, and that the rounds are being done in a cost-effective manner.

This could help reduce mileage, and create saving in fuel, tyres and vehicle maintenance, thus saving the council money.

Councillor Brian Vincent Cabinet member for the Environment said: "A lot of preparation work is going on behind the scene to make our service more efficient.

"We have a number of changes on the cards for our city's waste and recycling collections, with collection days being changed for some residents as part of this. We also need to invest in our staff and our fleet to make sure they run effectively."

The first of the council's major changes to service will begin from 1 May, when glass bottles and jars will be collected in recycling bins and bags from all homes across the city.

Driving awareness campaign

The safety of waste collection crews has been rising in prominence recently, with waste management company Biffa launching a driving awareness campaign in the Wirral last week to reduce the number of incidents of ‘poor and dangerous’ driving around its collection vehicles and crews.

According to Biffa, in 2013 there were over 700 incidents reported of cars being driven on pavements, and several occasions where staff were hit by vehicles.

As such, starting this month, all of Biffa’s 200 collection staff in the Wirral will be wearing new high-visibility yellow vests overprinted with the slogan ‘Cars stay off pavements. We are only doing our job’ to raise awareness of the problem.

Biffa’s collection vehicles will also sport two new bold slogans: “The safety of our staff is important: you will be reported to the police if you put them in danger’ and ‘Please drive carefully around this vehicle’.

Find out more about Plymouth City Council’s recycling service changes or Biffa’s driving awareness campaign.