The team at Fire Safety Stick are being contacted on an almost daily basis with companies and organisations looking to carry the innovative fire extinguisher into their vehicle fleets. Recently, following conversations with principal distributors, and fire safety experts, Kings Secure Technologies Ltd, the Post Office fleet team were very interested in the Fire Safety Stick and the benefits it could bring to their organisation.

Like other companies before them, the Post Office were keen to understand the benefits that the Fire Safety Stick offers over traditional extinguishers usually carried in their vehicles. Typically, this would be a 1kg or 2 kg dry powder fire extinguisher and, although very effective in being able to deal with a small, controllable vehicle fire before it becomes established, these do have some notable disadvantages.

Firstly, weight for example, the 1kg dry powder extinguisher actually weighs around 2.25kg (the 1kg being its net, powder weight) and of course, in all vehicles, extra weight means extra fuel and extra costs. Next, the life span is typically 5 years or less for these traditional, pressurised extinguishers and during that time, they should be serviced by an external service company at least each and every year, again with extra expense. Also, this means extra administration time, co-ordinating the servicing whilst the vehicles are off the road. Then there is the mess, should the powder extinguisher be knocked or dropped and they can be easily accidentally activated, as most transport managers will testify, it’s not as rare as you might think. And that mess is extremely caustic, potentially destroying the surfaces it comes in contact with. It is not unheard of a car being written off, not so much due to a fire, but the electrical and mechanical damage caused by the powder residue.

The Fire Safety Stick weighs from just 215g (gross weight), lasts for at least 15 years, with no need for any external servicing during that time and it leaves no damaging mess or residue during its activation. Then factor in just how durable it is, because it is a solid resin and not pressurised, it can be dropped and knocked without any risk of possible accidental activation. Plus, it’s certified for more classes of fires than other extinguishers including dry powder.

It is these various factors that attracted the Post Office fleet managers to the Fire Safety Stick, both whilst visiting the Fire Safety Stick Stand during the UK’s leading commercial vehicle show, as well as following up with the conversations they were having with Kings Technologies, one of the UK leading fire safety companies leading the way over other companies, by championing this new, game-changing fire extinguisher. The Post Office team were welcomed at Fire Safety Stick’s headquarters in Luton, Bedfordshire, not only to see the real-life fire demonstration with the Fire Safety Stick but also to be able to ask and fully understand any remaining queries they had.

The deployment of the Fire Safety Sticks was to be in their fleet of 300 vehicles used for Cash-In-Transit. The new extinguishers replaced their previous dry powder extinguishers, therefore saving the expense of servicing, the need for replacement every 5 years and of course the extra weight in the vehicles. And of course, the added advantage is, should they ever be needed to be used within the cargo hold, then they knew the discharge of the extinguisher could not cause any further damage to the very valuable contents.

Of course, the Post Office drivers and other staff needed to be trained on how to use the Fire Safety Stick and although very simple and easy to use in an emergency, the Fire Safety Stick team along with Kings Technologies, ensured they had full instructions and guidance. In addition, a useful factsheet was supplied for the staff so they could fully understand this new, innovative product and its advantages to carrying it. The senior management at the Post Office commented on how well the rollout was executed and accepted by all those concerned. And have confirmed that as they roll out more on their expanding fleet, they too will be protected by the Fire Safety Stick.

As well for the cash-in-transit vehicles, the fleet managers from the Post Office have also had the Fire Safety Sticks installed in their fleet of 75 Mobile Post Office Branches. These provide a vital service of bringing the Post Office facilities to the public in rural areas. So now the Fire Safety Stick are also protecting not only the Post Office staff in the vehicles but also the members of the public visiting the mobile Post Office vans as they buy their stamps etc.