Sixty years ago (7th July 1962), a skilled young 23-year-old opened an auto-electrical business named after the Starter and Generators that were core to his company. SGESCO was born.
Today, Albert McPherson’s company, SGESCO-MAX, is recognised as one of Australia’s most innovative manufacturers of heavy vehicle safety equipment that protects people, prevents damage to property and preserves vehicle up time.
His Australian-first engineering accomplishments are testament to what can be achieved when a university education is not viable but when curiosity, tenacity and a solutions mindset are applied to the key challenges of the day.
Albert McPherson, the founder of SGESSCO-MAX, an Australian heavy vehicle safety innovator
SGESCO started operating workshops at Holland Park and Rocklea then Albert acquired a mechanical business that primarily focused on truck mechanics in the late 80s. All this was against the backdrop of an economic downturn following the Keating recession “we had to have”.
In 2000, after his eldest son, Marc had worked at SGESCO for well over a decade, Albert bought a business called MAX Instruments, the Queensland distributor of equipment and gauges developed by German conglomerate VDO (later Siemens VDO and today part of Continental).
Still a part of the business today, this technology has provided critical vehicle information to drivers on key systems such as oil, air, temperature and pressure gauges, fuel and water sensors, voltmeters, tachometers, hour meters, speedometer sensors, RPM senders, and more.
With the acquisition, the company became known as SGESCO-MAX, located in Archerfield. Through their international affiliation SGESCO-MAX started attending technology fairs in Europe to keep abreast of the latest technology advances, many of which were safety related, highlighting how progressive Europe was in driving world safety standards.
In 2001 Trans-Pacific Waste Management (now Cleanaway) engaged SGESCO-MAX to create a safety switch to stop trucks from rolling away. By adding seat sensors to a vehicle SGESCO MAX was able to trigger active breaking if the vehicle were moving and no one was seated. Australia’s first Anti-Rollaway Brake for trucks soon became a major commercial offering under the brand name of MAX-SAFE. Today, this solution is much more advanced using micro-processors and software, while connecting directly into a vehicles control area network (CAN). It has been the company’s flagship safety product for over two decades, adopted widely by the Australian waste management sector. It protects not only people or property in the path of the vehicle, but crucially the driver who is often the victim of a rollaway incident.
Heavy vehicles pose much greater safety risks than cars when connecting with a vulnerable road user, leading to much higher rates of serious injury or death.
In 2005 a garbage truck accidentally reversing over someone in a city street saw SGESCO-MAX engaged by Ipswich City County to create a preventative solution.
That led to MAX-SAFE Reverse Watch®, a radar installed at the rear of the vehicle, that is paired with an active breaking solution should someone or something be spotted in a vehicle’s reversing path, automatically stopping a vehicle from reversing. Today, this solution, which was a unique market offering for close to 15 years, is evolving to use advanced radars as the key detection technology.
Marc McPherson, Director Research & Development at SGESCO-MAX
Following these two market leading solutions, Albert became fondly known as Mr Solver, respected for his knack of creating out-of-the-box technology solutions that are tailored for each specific vehicle type and brand. (If you have a Volvo truck the hardware in the MAX-SAFE safety solution will be cables that match Volvo parts and design, thus ensuring integrity of the safety solution.)
This pursuit of technological solutions also saw SGESCO-MAX work more closely with major clients to better appreciate the myriad of risks that confront drivers and their vehicles, making safety a fundamental value of SGESCO-MAX’s business.
“Safety is a core value of nearly every business we deal with,” said Marc McPherson, Director Research & Development.
“Everyone wants their staff to be safe, to go home at the end of the day. They want the general public to be safe too. It’s all about zero harm.
“This priority on safety has been a guiding light for the business over the last decade and is now part of the company’s DNA. We are about helping clients live their values and meet their safety goals.”
For decades safety has been a third-party add-on, claims Marc, noting that the way trucks are built is:
i) Chassis
ii) body and then
iii) technology.
“Our goal is to have safety integrated with other software systems, like fleet management.
“The idea is for our technology to have human senses (in terms of sight and sound) then apply logic into the solution for it to activate proactive safety measures. This is the future,” said Marc.
Cameras are great for recording and auditing after an event, but they don’t provide the complete safety solution. They don’t work well in the dark for instance. This is why a combination of audio and visual monitoring and alerts along with radars are needed, particularly to help with Vulnerable Road Users, said Marc.
Scott McPherson, Managing Director at SGESCO-MAX
Helping SGESCO-MAX bring their re-imagined view of safety to Australian – and international – customers is Albert’s younger son, Scott, who joined the business in 2020, after 30 years working in the IT solutions industry in various leadership roles. He came onboard as Managing Director, allowing Albert to enjoy a well-earned retirement in his 80th year.
Scott has been instrumental in articulating the SGESCO-MAX strategic vision – the MAX-SAFE Safety Eco-System – a complete safety eco system for a vehicle’s surrounds – and defining the architecture for this solution by working more closely with customers on a needs analysis. This has freed up Marc and his team to continue technology research and testing and solutions development.
“Every industry has safety challenges,” says Scott. “Some are common, some are unique depending on equipment used, and what it is doing. For example, a garbage truck has large lifters that come down to collect bins or skips. This moving equipment would be fatal if it were to hit someone. It’s a case of thinking of every what-if scenario and trying to pre-empt and protect that position.”
Understanding the challenges that drivers and fleet managers face is paramount said Scott.
“Most heavy vehicles have a single driver who is constantly scanning their environment for safety hazards – this includes mirrors and in cabin screens – in some situations up to five screens.
“Our aim is to integrate and collapse all those inputs so that drivers are only looking at one screen. This will require us working more closely with body builders to have this technology built into the body fitment. It parallels what has happened in the tech industry in recent decades when it comes to miniaturisation – to produce greater functionality from a smaller physical yet more powerful form.
“On top of this design goal we want to contribute to the development of intelligent vehicles with “all senses” engaged so that they can detect hazards and prevent accidents from happening, reducing stress on drivers and improving safety for all. We also want the system to be IoT-connected so it’s part of a bigger macro environment helping organisations manage safety and productivity through best of breed fleet management systems.”
Scott has paved the way for greater enablement in all functions of the business in order to increase awareness of the company’s world-class safety solutions, make their solutions more readily available, and advance the company’s leadership in Safety R&D.
Other notable achievements over the last 18 months include:
As our father weathered the Keating era recession, we have weathered COVID-19, taking the opportunity to invest in our business on multiple fronts, said Scott.
“It was important that our company systems and processes match the world class solutions that we offer. Underpinning this has been an aim to improve efficiency and customer service while ensuring we have the right technical and other foundations in place to facilitate growth and deliver the eco-system we envisage for customers.
He is enjoying his retirement though still keeping up to date on a regular basis with what is happening at SGESCO-MAX.
“Dad was a man ahead of his time. He has always wanted to know how things work and worked hard to maximise current available technology. He was not one to rest on his laurels and at times he was frustrated that technological advances did not keep up with the ideas he had.
“He wanted to be an engineer, but my grandparents couldn’t afford to send him to university at that time in their lives. In our eyes he became an engineer through the work that he did and the innovations he brought to life.
“We could not be prouder of what he has accomplished in his 60 years at SGESCO-MAX and the foundations he laid. Aside from the business he has been a wonderful role model and over the years provided fantastic opportunities to hundreds of apprentices to have their own rewarding careers.”