Regularly working with National Highways, Tier 1 Contractors and Local Authorities, MVIS are a trusted name when it comes to the delivery of ITS solutions across the UK.

As we continue to deliver for clients of all kinds, we have been building on our strong reputation in the industry for customer service and expertise. Due to our focus on portable VMS and specific ITS solutions, our expertise is specialised in our core solutions rather than diluted across many different types of products, like some of our competitors.

This allows us to offer a premium level service for silver level rates and we don’t just cater to big customers. As market leaders, we supply all customers, from high profile schemes to small scale events and basic messaging deployments, we deliver the same level of customer service to all of our customers, no matter how big they are or how big the order is.

Our services don’t just stop at deployment too. Our expertise is often relied upon by customers for consulting purposes regarding how many units are needed, how to best utilise their added-value features and how to provide maximum efficiency for traffic management goals such as traffic flow and safety.

Safety as a concept is of vital importance to us at every step of the company, from our processes and policies to our operations and service – indeed, we have had no reportable incidents of injury in our 9-year history.

This approach is reinforced with a number of accreditations and memberships, leaving no doubt with our clients about what they’re getting when they hire with MVIS. Amongst these include FORS Bronze, Achilles BuildingConfidence membership, Constructionline Gold and ISO accreditations in ISO45001: Occupational Health & Safety, ISO9001: Quality Management Systems and ISO14001: Environmental Management Systems, which come together to make an Integrated Management System (IMS), bringing our systems and processes into one complete framework.

It’s not enough just preaching the importance of safety to our team, however. In order for them to work in a safe environment, everyone needs the relevant skills and training to contribute to this. MVIS provide training for all staff, ensuring that each member of the team is trained and certified in all relevant aspects for everyone to do their job safely, which not only ensures their own safety, but the safety of those around them and for some members of the team, the safety of the general public too.

Internally, we have a programme of Health and Safety training that is ongoing for every operative, in addition to any external training that may be needed for specific projects or for a specific role. For example, all MVIS team members required on-site are CSCS qualified.  

In keeping with our ISO, our responsibilities extend to the environment too. We maintain strong sustainable policies that ensures our carbon footprint is minimised and still reducing as time goes on. A great example of this is our membership with Forest Carbon and their Carbon Club, which allows organisations and businesses an opportunity to address their carbon footprint in a long lasting and effective way.

Purchasing ‘carbon credits’ allows Forest Carbon to plant trees and create new woodlands in the UK on our behalf, which will sequester greenhouse gases from the atmosphere in the years to come.

To make the most of this fantastic opportunity, we are committing to the initiative fully by buying extra credits and planting more trees for any long-term contracts our customers place with us. This has a very powerful effect as time goes on, allowing both MVIS and our customers to help the environment now and in the future, as well as helping to restore habitats for wildlife that is local to the plant sites, increasing biodiversity, protecting against floods and improving river ecosystems.

But it’s perhaps our product offering that has the biggest impact. Offering a suite of solar powered products has an obvious environmental benefit, but when these products are used for applications with an environmental goal, the units become much more than safety solutions.

A recent development, for example, is the ITS Integrated Environmental Sensor, which can be integrated with any of our products and offers clients the ability to monitor and report on air quality. The implications of this on the environment could be huge; the first step in helping to combat levels of pollution is identifying the extent of the pollution. Our ITS Integrated Environmental Sensor allows all our ITS units to work together to serve as a low cost, multi-functional air quality network that passively generates such data whilst serving another safety function.

Together, these aspects contribute to an already strong reputation in the industry for being the best at what we do, and this is only being confirmed with each project that we are trusted with.

As our Major Projects portfolio has increased since our beginnings with the Olympics in 2012, we are repeatedly reminded of the importance of expertise and how vital it is that we remain industry leading specialists in the delivery of solar powered, portable VMS and ITS solutions.

Over the last 9 years we have been serving the UK’s national highway system with our solar powered ITS safety solutions. During this time, we have built up a reputation in the industry for delivering platinum service.

But it’s not just service that we shine on – MVIS are well known for bringing the innovative solutions from sister companies Bartco UK and Bartco AU to the UK market. As Highways schemes begin to pick up again after the devastation of the COVID pandemic, we wanted to take this opportunity to shine a spotlight on the products that have helped us build this reputation in the industry and has helped to keep the UK’s Highways safe for nearly a decade.

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VMS-A

The VMS-A is ideal for urban and inner-city environments of speeds of up to 50mph, however it is commonly used as part of highways projects. As one of our most popular units for traffic management applications, the unit’s smaller footprint provides a tidy option in limited space environments, which can often be very helpful for customers. It can also be used to inform drivers on urban roads that lead to highways about works that may affect them, encouraging them to take a different route or proceed with caution. 

With over 180 VMS-A units in our fleet, the product has become an incredibly reliable ‘go to’ option for a range of projects over the years.

VMS-C

Purpose build for the high-speed network, we also offer the VMS-C, the perfect solution for roads with a speed limit higher than 50mph.

Bigger than the VMS-A, the VMS-C is often a preferred option for highways projects due to it’s larger screen size, making it ideal to communicate with drivers travelling at high speeds, as the larger the screen, the further the viewing distance, which is very important for highspeed roads.

As a result, the VMS-C is a regular sight on the UK’s Highways network, with little wonder due to the 228 units in our fleet, giving us the largest fleet of portable VMS in Europe.

Despite the key difference in these signs being size, they both boast a range of valuable shared features that makes them so effective in high speed applications.

5 Colour Display

Using LED screens allows for a low power solution with maximum brightness for both the VMS-A and VMS-C displays. This helps to ensure that visibility is of the highest priority whilst simultaneously managing power output.

With the ability to show up to 5 different colours, the display allows for red, green, blue and white as well as the highways standard – amber, making our signs perfect for not only messaging but also pictograms or speed roundels.

Solar charging system

Specifically designed for the UK environment, both VMS-A and VMS-C are fitted with solar power units – removing the need for external power.

This more environmentally friendly feature showcases our commitment when it comes to going greener in accordance with our ISO 14001 Environmental Management accreditation.

 

Tilting Solar Panels

Both portable VMS units are designed to make the most out of the available light, allowing for the solar panels to be adjusted so they face the light.

On a technical level, the solar charging system is optimised for the UK by using the most suitable solar panels and solar regulators for our climate.

Units are built with a solar charger per solar panel rather than per unit, so optimal charging capacity is present at all times. This feature allows for maximum battery life efficiency and extended run times.

 

Radar Integration

All our VMS units have an integrated data collection radar that allows for them to display vital messages, speed alerts and responsive information, triggered by driver’s speed, using tried and tested traffic control solutions to positively influence driver behaviour.

The units discreetly house the radar that can also collect information on speed, time and date, making this solution a low cost alternative to many data collection solutions on the market and is ideal to be used as a data source for the analysis of traffic trends, enabling greater intelligence for planning projects of all kinds.

It may also help with highways construction site safety, allowing users to identify traffic trends with risk, such as speed or volume of traffic, and therefore take steps to combat it.

 

Environmental Sensor

The ITS Integrated Environmental Sensor can be combined with any of our ITS solutions to offer clients the ability to monitor the external environment, producing a wide range of air pollution data that can be used to inform and direct on issues of air pollution safety.

This solution is a low-cost system that offers the ability to build a high-density ambient air quality monitoring network that records data in real-time.

Perfect for temporary applications, this solution offers a very low cost alternative to static Air Quality monitoring stations and allow clients to cover more space, quickly and cost effectively. This is important for high speed construction applications as levels of pollution are often a concern for major projects, as is budget. 

 

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NTIS DATEX II Portable Journey Time Variable Message Sign Solution

Created in partnership with Highways England (HE), the NTIS DATEX II Portable Journey Time Solution generates real-time journey time information for road users using data from the National Traffic Information Service (NTIS).

The system was the first such solution on the market to enable real-time journey time information from the NTIS to be displayed on a portable VMS.

The NTIS DATEX II Portable Journey Time displays Highways England compliant journey time information, which is refreshed every five minutes, on any number of VMS C’s along major project schemes that are over four kilometres in length. This helps to keep road users informed of the travel time to the end of the road works. Congestion or delays are identified within tens of metres of their vicinity ensuring the messages displayed are relevant to the area affected.

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Works Egress Safety Solution

The VMS-C also plays a crucial part in our Works Egress Safety Solution, which offers increased safety for not just the general public but also works traffic that merges from a works egress onto a high-speed road. The role of the VMS C in this solution is to inform upcoming drivers that works traffic will be merging, giving them plenty of warning, and so helping to minimise the risk.

The VMS-A can also do this on a high speed road if there is limited space on-site or the speed limit has been lowered to 50 due to the works.

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Solar IP

The Solar IP is a highly versatile and functional unit that offers users the ability to mount and power their own technology, bringing portability to technology that is usually fixed due to power constraints.

The unit brings a lot to safety, security and site management applications, allowing for the integration of technologies such as CCTV and IVD data collection radars to name but a few, making these technologies portable and bringing benefit to highways applications.

The crowing feature of this product however is its solar credentials. A trailer based power bank is an attractive solution on its own, but when considering the environmentally friendly power output, it may even be a preferred solution to fixed power, if the long term environmental impact of the installation is a consideration for the client, for example.

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For more information about how our products can support highways works, please contact us via our contact form.

Alternatively, you can email us via sales@m-vis.co.uk.

 

Roads are known to have a mixture of positive and negative effects on the environment and the people who use them. Offering infrastructure benefits in terms of ease of mobility and other transport advantages, we use roads to get us – and our goods – to destinations safely. However, the very same roads take up valuable land, creating barriers for wildlife and can permanently change a landscape into something unrecognisable from what it once was.

One of the most damaging effects of roads, however, are that they invite traffic, which brings with it air pollution. This pollution can cause serious issues to surrounding areas and even jeopardise the health of nearby residents. It can also cause issues for those who are required to work outside, such as road or utility construction workers, who also have the added complication of dealing with potentially high levels of dust too.

But how are workers supposed to know when levels of air quality drop to a dangerous level?

This is where we come in.

Two recent solutions developed by MVIS’ sister company, Bartco UK and intelligent tracking solutions specialists, Iknaia help to provide workers with live data that can report on levels of air quality for a wide range of pollutants. With this data, site managers and workers can monitor in real time the air quality around them, allowing them to minimise the long-term damage that may be caused by implementing safety measures such as distributing PPE when required.

One of these solutions, the Compact Environmental Sensor, serves as a passive air quality monitoring station with a small footprint, meaning it doesn’t take up much valuable space on-site. Being solar powered by our ‘Compact’ base, this unit requires no external power supply and offers a very low-cost alternative to static Air Quality monitoring stations, allowing clients to cover more space in a cost-effective way.

The ITS Integrated Environmental Sensor offers many of the same benefits, however, what makes this product special is its capability to integrate with any of our solar powered ITS solutions, creating a multifunctional unit that can perfectly compliment most road construction projects.

A good example of this is when the Environmental Sensor is integrated with our range of portable VMS. In deploying this solution, site managers can increase safety even more, by using the VMS to raise awareness of the construction project that is underway.

Moreover, the same solution can be deployed in the lead up to any scheduled works, giving roads users plenty of warning that there will be disruption, as well as collecting air quality data beforehand, allowing site managers to implement risk mitigation strategies prior to the works being carried out, helping to keep their workers safe.

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For more information about our Environmental Sensor or if you would like to know more about how you can use our products to help with parking, please contact us via our contact form.

Alternatively, you can email us via sales@m-vis.co.uk.

Over the years, MVIS have built a solid reputation in the industry for providing excellent service to all customers on all projects, no matter the size or customer, we consistently offer our clients the very best service possible.

In recent months, we have been looking for ways that we can underscore this commitment to our customers and offer them an assurance on us as a company, for our service and for our products.

Our Platinum Service Promise is this –

“Platinum Level Service for Bronze Level Prices”

Our Quality & Service document serves to outline what we consider to be ‘Platinum Level Service’ and also highlights just how special our services are. 

We have always had a good relationship with our clients and we regularly receive positive feedback and comments that often credit us for one of the aspects listed in our Quality & Service Document.

Each time a customer comes to us with enthusiastic comments about our service, we see this not just as an opportunity to celebrate our collective achievement, but also to reinforce this standard of service within our team. Reinforcing these standards offers us the chance to make it very clear to our team what level of service we strive towards. It also helps our staff feel appreciated, giving them job satisfaction and rewarding their hard work.

Anne Ashman, UK Group Commercial and Operations Director comments “The Platinum Service Promise is a symbol of our commitment to service and customers. We have thought long and hard about a way we can demonstrate this, culminating in this promise to clients to always give them our very best. We are incredibly proud of our service record and the positive comments we receive from our customers.”

Anne continues, “However, it’s vital that we never lose sight of the importance of continuous improvement. Our Platinum Service Promise works in conjunction with our customer’s comments and internal audits to keep us on our toes, make us accountable and give us an opportunity to work on areas that may need another look. Having this trusting relationship with our customers allows us to consistently cater to their needs so we don’t miss anything as their needs evolve.”

Over the years, MVIS and Bartco UK have built a reputation for safety within the industry. Doing this has not been easy; we hold ourselves to very high standards that not only help to keep our staff safe, but also our customers and the general public too. In order to rise to the level that we have, we have worked to stringent safety frameworks through accreditations and memberships with organisations that help guide us along the right path, ensuring that we are maintaining as well as pushing our limits when it comes to matters of safety.

Such frameworks offer so much by way of support and guidance and by working to these, we have one of the best trained workforces in the industry. The accreditations and memberships we hold are a true testament to our commitment to safety and serve as a stamp of approval from these bodies that we work with safety in mind in everything that we do.

Amongst the most important of these frameworks are our ISO accreditations in the standards of quality (9001:2015), environmental management (14001:2015) and health & safety (45001:2018). Issued by global certification body NQA, ISO accreditations enforce the practise of and adherence to respected business standards that help organisations perform better in a wide range of aspects. Together, the ISO accreditations furnish us with a full IMS (integrated management system), bringing our systems and processes into one complete framework, making adherence to these core aspects highly important for us.

Subject to an annual audit by NQA, we are tested into order to ensure that we are making full use of the IMS, applying our accreditation skills to all levels of our business, and it is with great pride that we can announce that we have passed our audit for 2022 with flying colours.

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One of the other frameworks that we work to is Gold Status in the Constructionline programme. Constructionline offers a platform for thousands of buyers in the construction industry, enforcing an ethos of trust and quality amongst its members.

Assessing all members, the Constructionline platform is used by buyers to quickly find suppliers that will enable them to complete a range of projects in the industry by providing them with a pool of high-quality suppliers that they can engage with confidently.

Achieving Gold status on this platform requires further validation checks using an enhanced prequalification questionnaire that goes beyond those involved in silver. Our credentials were assessed for environmental management, quality management, equal opportunities, modern slavery act adherence and anti-bribery and corruption policies.

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We have also achieved Gold status in the Supply Chain Sustainability School, a platform that offers businesses extensive training into topics such as sustainability, offsite safety, procurement and management relevant to the business environment.

With a focus on CPD through training workshops, networking events and e-learning modules, achieving Gold status is done through completing or using a number of these tools across the company to ensure that the skills taught within the programmes are taken on by companies as well as filtered throughout the business.

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We have also re-certified with Achilles BuildingConfidence, having been registered for 3 years now. Achilles Building Confidence is a UK construction industry accreditation and risk management scheme that aims to help organisations identify, assess, qualify, and monitor suppliers throughout the supply chain, reducing operating costs.

A standardised pre-qualification questionnaire streamlines the procurement process and manages risk. 

Achilles enables communities of buyers and suppliers to build better business relationships through a more open, trusting and proactive approach. Sharing knowledge, standards and best practice leads to buyers and suppliers sharing success.

Achilles BuildingConfidence helps us to accentuate our commitment to these essential aspects of our business.

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Another accreditation we hold is the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS), which an accreditation scheme for fleet operators that aims to raise the level of quality within fleet operations, and to demonstrate which operators are achieving exemplary levels of best practice in safety, efficiency, and environmental protection.

In joining this collection of businesses, we have benchmarked the standard of excellence in our operations, achieving the FORS Bronze accreditation. Holding Bronze accreditation confirms that we employ good practice and comply with the requirements laid out by the FORS Standard, focusing on a dedication to driver and vehicle safety.

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Safety doesn’t just encompass physical safety, however. Last year, we signed up to the Prompt Payment Code. The Prompt Payment Code is a voluntary code of practice for businesses, administered by the Office of the Small Business Commissioner (SBC) on behalf of BEIS and sets standards for payment practices between organisations of any size and their suppliers.

Signatories to the code have undertaken to always pay suppliers on time, within agreed terms, to give clear guidance to suppliers on terms, dispute resolution and prompt notification of late payment, and well as to support good practice throughout their supply chain by encouraging adoption of the Code.

By promoting and sticking to these practices, we are serving as a good example for the code which may help to inspire other companies to sign up, enforcing best business practices all along our supply chain to help organisations conduct business safely.

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We also prioritise digital safety too. Cyber Essentials is a simple but effective,Government backed scheme that will help you to protect your organisation, whatever its size, against a whole range of the most common cyber attacks.

Cyber attacks come in many shapes and sizes, but the vast majority are very basic in nature, carried out by relatively unskilled individuals. They’re the digital equivalent of a thief trying your front door to see if it’s unlocked. Cyber Essentials is designed to prevent these attacks.

Certification gives us peace of mind that our defences will protect against the vast majority of common cyber attacks simply because these attacks are looking for targets which do not have the Cyber Essentials technical controls in place.

Cyber Essentials shows us how to address those basics and prevent the most common attacks.

It also gives our customers piece of mind that their data is handled according to best practices against common cyber attacks, meaning they can hire with us confidently.

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Graeme Lee, Sales Director for MVIS and Bartco UK commented, “The frameworks we work to have been carefully considered and are absolutely essential to ensure the safety of our team, so we do not take it lightly. Everyone within our group has had training that goes beyond the basic requirements for their job role. Clients come to us knowing that we do not compromise when it comes to our standards, giving us a loyal customer base and separating us from other portable VMS suppliers.”  

The further we invest in strong accreditations and memberships, the more we change the way we operate and how we approach challenges. In an ever-evolving world, staying up to date on matters of safety has never been more important.