Important element that has helped York achieve the market leadership is its wide service & spares network. More importantly York keeps improving it by penetrating more in smaller cities and all major national and State highways. As a brand and a responsible corporate entity, they train service technicians of local garages and fleet operators. People who are trained by York alone are allowed to do maintenance of their axles within the warranty period. York manufactures most of its items in India and also produces some special axles for export to countries like Australia, Singapore, South Africa and Indonesia. Mr. Gurumukh Singh, General Manager (Sales & Service), shares his views on the topic.
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Mandatory and other safety requirements in products
- York has developed Axles with solid spindle and 150mm square tube which is a very strong section and it improves the safety of complete Trailer.
- It has recently introduced 13 ton and 16 ton Sheet metal Suspension with heavy duty brackets and torque arms which will ensure no premature failure and also improve safety of Trailer.
- York has developed kingpin and landing gears which are approved from ARAI and it will again assure vehicle safety.
- It is also providing ABS ready Axles to improve stability and brake control of Trailers in different road conditions.
- York has also launched auto inflation system which will avoid accidents due to sudden tyre puncture and subsequent tyre bursting.
- York is recommending to use tubeless tyres with auto tyre inflation system to improve safety of vehicles and also improvement of tyre life.
Safety features and highlights in applications
There are markets like Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab where still Trailer manufacturers are using reconditioned old axles in new Trailers which may break at any moment and can impose major accident threat on highways. One of the common practices observed is of lifting of front axle in Trailers in laden condition and total pay load acting on rear two axles in place of Trailer which is designed with three axles. This will lead to heavy stress act on rear two axles and suspension which may cause of premature failures and lead to accident at high speeds.
We thank the ministry of road transport for bringing AIS 113 regulation for Trailers. As per this regulation Trailer manufacturers are required to use good quality of axles with ABS, suspension, landing gears and kingpin, which will improve the safety of vehicles on highways. Though AIS 113 regulation is implemented by ministry of road transport still it is not implemented at state levels. Recently we have seen implementation in Tamil Nadu which is a good move towards ensuring road safety. We hope that it will be enforced across all states at the earliest to improve vehicles & road safety.
Safety apprehensions at higher road speeds
Mainly most of the trailers are built currently with locally made suspensions, kingpin and axles which are not designed as per required vehicle speed and load requirement. We have seen lot many cases of major accidents happening due to kingpin failures. These kingpins were not designed as per actual load and stress parameters required for Trailers of different applications. Still Trailers are far away from using of ABS and EBS brake system which improves safety of trailers when they are running at a high speeds.