Stephen Temple, Barloworld Logistics Africa Divisional Director of Dedicated Transport Services, has re-run the 'animal strike' movie many times. He explains: "Since PPC came on stream with cement production from their Dwaalboom plant in late 1996, we have been transporting cement by road and running night operations. On average, we suffered one incident per month - a kudu strike - that would amount in direct repair costs to around R100 000, excluding downtime.

"We fitted bull-bars and this brought the repair bill down to R60 000 but animal strikes continued. Detailed stats were developed - where did this occur, why and how could it be limited? The total annual bill ran up to R1-million when both repair costs and downtime were combined. Top these losses with an additional environmental impact and there was every reason to find a solution."

Analyse cause - not effect
"It's amazing what information one collects when you analyse the cause and not the effect," says Temple. "For example, we found that cutting the grass on the roadside verges did not help. Game farms even raised fence heights to try stop animals from crossing roads. Despite these measures being taken, the accident rate continued. In fact, new grass shoots attracted the kudus to aggravate the problem."

Reducing speed from 80 down to 60kph was also tried but still, this did not reduce the incidents. They also tried fitting lights with a broader sweep of the roadside and while this too did not bring down the rate of animal strikes, it was also a problem for other road users so extra driving lights were discontinued.

"We then resorted to noise - a small air-horn that was designed to emit a high-pitched sound at speed as the air passed through it. This gave us a 50% incident reduction. But the air-horn was speed-dependent to pitch the frequency at a consistent level and also relied on cleaning for efficiency. And in any event, 50% was still too high." 
 

Dark sets in and out on the country roads, the only warning a truck driver gets of the risk of roaming animals is an illuminated traffic sign. The driver goes on cautiously but doesn't see the kudu until it's too late. This is the situation that faced Barloworld with costly fleet damage from animal impact accidents amounting to some R1-million per annum. And that's apart from the animals being killed. It's now a thing of the past with the 'kudu buster'.

Get clever - innovate
"Then we got clever" says Temple. "A long search for an innovative approach took us through the Internet to 'DeerBusters' and the 'Animal Lover Car Attached Warning Device'. This tiny device emits 110dBa ultrasonic alert signals while the vehicle is running and is not speed dependent. It weighs next to nothing, is easily installed and helps save pets and animals by alerting them of a vehicle's proximity. That's a real advantage because the word 'kudu' is meant in a generic sense - we don't want a vehicle to collide with any animal. It's just that a kudu is big and inflicts extensive losses."
 

While we have referred to this simple device as the 'Kudu Buster, its actual name is 'Animal Lover' which is more apt as its function serves to save all animals - not just kudus - from meeting ghastly death on the roads at night.

Temple points out that such a device should be automatic and not depend on human intervention to operate. "It's too late after an incident to say that a driver forgot to switch it on," he says. The fact the 'kudu-buster' is not speed dependent is also a plus factor in comparison to the air-horn that required a consistent speed level to operate.

The 'kudu-buster's' by-product of saving tare mass is a real benefit. Remember that this rig is achieving 40t payload at 56t GCM and, if fitted, a bull-bar would be a lifetime penalty. A bull-bar weighs more on the front axle than its own weight. Because a bull-bar is ahead of the front axle, it causes mass transfer from the rear axle to the front axle - the more the distance from the front axle the greater the leverage effect with the possibility of causing front axle overload. 

Freightliner's Eddie Caromba recognises that DeerBuster technology is cutting edge stuff. It will be fitted as standard equipment on all Freightliners coming out of Portland USA, a Caromba commitment to spec change.
 

Freightliner's Eddie Caromba and Barloworld's Stephen Temple shake hands on finding an innovative solution to a vexing and costly trucking and environmental problem.

It's an environmental step with a win for all. No accidental animal strikes, kudus get to live, no damage to the truck, no downtime, more payload-productivity and less driver stress - eishhhhh! Can it get any better? 

We need more 'out-of-the-box' thinking of this type and the simplicity of it all needs applause. Well-done - now can we find something other than the term 're-cap' to sort out the behaviour of minibus taxis on the road?