THE boss of a Bradford demolition company hopes other firms will follow suit with the innovative safety features on its £2.2 million fleet of new tipper trucks.

Thomas Crompton has bought the group of 20 Volvo Tipper Trucks from Crossroads Truck & Bus, with £5,000 of extra safety equipment included on each of the vehicles.

Each of the trucks is kitted out with a number of state-of-the-art safety devices including audible indicators, the latest GPS tracking system that enable the firm to go back several months and from a computer, workers can see the vehicle driving down a road showing a 360 degree angle monitoring its exact location and speed.

They will also have five video cameras for close proximity and blind-spots which give 360 degree vision. These are connected to a black box that stores the information on the vehicles and downloads the data to computers in the firm’s office.

Rear bicycle signs illuminate when the vehicle is turning and for vulnerable road user reflective warning signs.

Managing director Thomas Crompton said: “We are hoping that other operators will follow suit with the safety features that our new vehicles have.

“We want to help make the roads safer for people using these types of trucks and for other road users.

“Customers have already welcomed the safety features on these vehicles.”

The fleet of trucks will be used to expand the firm’s business across England, as it regularly works at sites in York, Leicester and Manchester.

Six of the trucks have been delivered to their Neville Road base so far. The company employs 100 people and has worked on the demolition of mill sites in Bradford ravaged by fire over the last year, including Prospect Mill in Thornton last November.