It’s no secret that operators of heavy vehicles and machinery face unique challenges.
These may include:
A panel at the Heavy Vehicle Safety Summit that took place in April of this year noted that a combination of training and technology is key to addressing the human aspect of these challenges. In a recent blog post, we talk about how to get your workers to adhere to your safety guidelines. But what about technology?
From a noise perspective, typically heavy equipment vehicles are built to operate within a 75-82dB(A) range depending on payload, road, and the vehicle itself. As a point of reference:
These high noise levels make communications difficult—or impossible—for operators.
In these cases, ear-muffs or plugs are used to protect hearing, and headsets are used for communications. Two-way radios are generally used to provide communications between operators inside the vehicles and operations at the base. How can a worker stay protected and still communicate while operating a heavy vehicle?
On top of this, entertainment is critical to the safe and productive operation of heavy vehicles.
Long shifts coupled with repetitious job functions result in vehicle operator fatigue being a common problem, so operators use stereos or other audio entertainment devices to help combat and manage this.
The technical term for what’s happening here is “auditory masking”. Auditory masking “occurs when the perception of one sound is affected by the presence of another sound.”
Essentially, when an operator is in the cab, the 75dB(A) cab noise interferes with standard audio coming from two-way radios and stereo systems, which operate at 10dB(A) and higher.
To hear those devices and communications, operators may do one of two things:
Either way, your operators are now exposing themselves to potentially harmful noise levels.
When you couple the vehicle noise with the additional noise of the two-way radio and entertainment, the dB levels can rise past the safe levels dictated by OSHA. As the heavy vehicles operate in the 75-80dB(A) noise range, to adequately hear the two-way radio and entertainment noise is potentially increased 10-20dB louder than the background noise, resulting in in-cab sound levels from 85 to 95dB.
The only way to achieve this is by wirelessly routing the entertainment and two-way radio audio directly through a headset to the operator. This means the entertainment and two-way radio are played at a volume that is safe for the operator, within the headset, without having to compete with the noise in the cabin, reducing the operator’s harmful noise exposure.
First, the risk of hearing loss is significantly reduced as drivers are always protected. Since they can perform their job effectively with the headsets on, there is less temptation to remove them.
Operators of heavy equipment can perform their jobs safely and with less fatigue.
And secondly, communication is enhanced significantly, resulting in fewer cases of lost or inaccurate communication which can lead to truck backups and potentially dangerous consequences.
Are you interested in learning more about how you can reduce the risk of noise-related injuries while improving the communication experience for your operators in heavy vehicles?
Contact us today at Sensear for more information.