RIVA and Kiwitron partner for safety: availability and wide product range are the pluses

We asked Alberto Riva, COO of RIVA – Forklift Trucks and Logistics Systems, to tell us about how his company’s interest in Kiwitron came about.

Alberto Riva, 37, currently serves as COO in the family business, now in its third generation to him.

 

Alberto, how is your role in the company evolving? 

For as long as I can remember, my dream has always been to carry on what my grandfather and father respectively created and grew.

I can say that, work-wise, I have had no other desire since I was a child: when most peers dreamed of being an astronaut or a scientist, I remained fixated on what I called “forklift mechanic” in those days.

I began to enter this world around the age of 13, when the company was little more than a workshop with 5 or 6 employees, spending summer vacations in the workshop learning from our technicians about field work, and then starting to go out doing outside service at customer sites.

 

At the age of 23, having completed my studies, I officially joined the workforce as technical support manager, a role I held for about 10 years, moving on to general management in 2020.

In the first phase of my career, I focused on streamlining business procedures related to service and digitizing all processes.

In my current role, however, among the projects I am most proud of is the initiation and development of the collaboration with BYD.

I got to know this brand in 2017 and decided to become their first dealer in Italy; this brought exponential growth to the company in terms of numbers and visibility, so much so that to date we are the Italian dealer with the highest numbers on the sale of forklifts with lithium batteries.

My greatest satisfaction has been to see our company grow day by day and become internally structured, growing internally the people who now hold the positions of responsibility, to the point where we now have about 30 employees and more than 2,000 active clients.

 

How did you get to know Kiwitron?

I met Kiwitron when Kiwitron did not yet exist.

About fifteen years ago or so, I first tried a device for a customer who needed to geolocate some property vehicles.

When a few years later another customer asked me for a similar system, I found out that Kiwitron had been born and had since developed other products that could perform that and many other functions.

Shortly thereafter I received a call from Sergio Odobez, with whom I was already collaborating on other projects, in which he informed me that he had just started working at Kiwitron.

From that day on, we began installing Kiwitron systems on both customer vehicles and those in our short rental fleet, and we partnered with a major forklift manufacturer so that we became their official installers for all Kiwitron devices.

 

What are the major advantages of Kiwitron solutions?

At the regulatory level, the 4.0 period brought with it great opportunities, but accompanied by as many risks: in the beginning, the law was written in a way that was difficult to interpret, and often we end customers were somewhat left to our own devices because “the end customer is always responsible anyway.”

In Kiwitron, on the other hand, I found a partner who was always willing to dialogue with clients and the various certification companies in a clear and transparent way, providing us with serious and continuous support from the moment of sizing the proposed solution.

At the management level, moreover, the fleet management portal for the end user is very user friendly and does not require great computer skills to consult.

On the other hand, as far as the technical aspect is concerned, the ease of installation and the variety of solutions proposed, suitable for any type of need, make Kiwitron a complete and reliable partner for all solutions related to control and security in the company.

 

What are the most popular products and features and why?

Definitely the KeyTouch datalogger systems, coupled with KiwiEye artificial intelligence radar and optical sensors, and the KeyAdvance.

As I mentioned above, Industry 4.0 has given a big boost to these types of products in that it has led many companies to buy them, too often for purely economic reasons.

The implication of this contribution, however, emerged once end customers received the machines and tested the systems: at that point it was easy for users to understand that these technologies could be a very valuable tool for increasing safety within production processes.

KiwiEye coupled with KiwiPad also makes it possible to eliminate rear view cameras on high reach trucks, replacing them with an active system that performs the same functions but the important plus of detecting people (even without tags) and obstacles.

The implementation on the portal of heatmaps to monitor high-risk areas and near-misses and the ability to monitor the actual utilization of vehicles within the plant were two keys to making customers understand the potential of these products.

In this historical phase, in which occupational safety is taking a more prominent role than it did a few years ago, the variety of solutions that Kiwitron can propose to the customer are a plus that will be increasingly demanded by end customers.

 

How do you see the near future?

As far as our company is concerned, in the near future the goal is to continue the process of growth, always striving to find the most technologically advanced products first and providing high standards of customer service, so as to consolidate the competitive advantage we have built over the years.

Speaking instead of the general near future, in my opinion the future will be influenced by a number of factors, related to productivity, technology and safety.

As far as our industry is concerned, certainly a key role will be played by process automation, through the widespread use of robotics to improve efficiency and reduce operating costs.

Likewise, however, the adoption of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and augmented reality will help improve workplace safety, as these technologies can be used to monitor the work environment in real time, identify potential hazards and provide customized training to prevent accidents.

Companies that are able to embrace these trends and adopt innovative solutions will be well positioned to succeed in the business landscape of the future.