Dorman Aims to Maintain Market Lead
11th January 2010
2010 is already looking to be another year where Dorman LED products are the product of choice for customers in Rail, Road and Variable Messaging in both home and overseas markets.
Flexibility in meeting customer need was amply demonstrated in the run up to the Christmas Railway Engineering Period, when 98% of customer requests for accelerated delivery dates for products were met. This dramatic ramp up in production output, occurred alongside a surge in demand for LED Level Crossing products due to the start of a National Fitment Campaign which will see all level crossings in the UK converted to LED.
The Dorman LED Wig Wag, LED Standing Red Man, LED Barrier Boom Light, LED Drivers Crossing Indicator and LED Miniature Stop Light are all being specified for the campaign.
The road lamp market has continued to be an area where Dorman dominates the market .One order alone for 25,000 ConeLITEs coupled with the increase in Rail sales has meant that Dorman have bucked the national trend and recruited an extra 15% more staff to work at the Southport manufacturing facility.
The coming year will also see the introduction of a completely new Dorman Varitext sign which has been developed in close cooperation with the Highways Agency. The new sign will enable Dorman Varitext to offer a full range of options including control and status reporting of each individual sign in an Integrated Transport System over the GSM mobile telephone network.
Our main export markets of North America and Australia continue to show encouraging signs of growth.
Having achieved formal State of Florida Highways Department approval for Vehicle Activated Traffic Calming Signs (VATCS), it is expected that many more states will follow suit. A new version of the Dorman LED Colour Light Signal is currently on trial in Canada and initial feedback from the customer has been very encouraging.
In Australia, the State of Queensland have been trialling ten VATCS in remote locations using mobile broadband technology to control the signs from over 100km away from the main control centre. Excellent customer support has been a major feature of the trial and further orders are expected due to this. Major train operator V/Line have just given full approval to the Dorman LED Barrier Boom Light and decreed that all future installations will use Dorman units and current crossing arms will be progressively upgraded during maintenance work.
The second decade of the 21st century has all the signs of being as exciting as the first and Dorman continue to be the leading light in LED technology.