Select adds Xwatch to new JCBs: safety and telematics notes for site engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Select Plant Hire is fitting Xwatch XW5 MK2 safety systems to around 30 new JCB machines from its £5m fleet expansion, covering 370X tracked excavators, 245XR and 145XR reduced tailswing excavators, 9‑tonne dual‑drive site dumpers and Loadall telehandlers. The systems provide configurable height and slew limits plus rated capacity indication, allowing rapid adjustment for overhead services, exclusion zones and lifting duties as machines move between very different sites. Xwatch, now part of Hexagon, is also rolling out its XW‑Insite telematics with Select to track location, hours, fuel use, CO2 data, geofencing, faults and safety settings across the mixed fleet.
Technical Brief
- Height and slew limiting functions are tuned for overhead hazards, restricted zones and lifting envelopes on each machine.
- Rated capacity indication is integrated to manage excavator lifting operations without separate stand‑alone RCI units.
- XW‑Insite aggregates safety system settings with machine telemetry, enabling remote checks that limits remain correctly configured on hire.
- Geofencing within XW‑Insite allows definition of virtual exclusion zones, supporting site‑specific traffic management and proximity controls.
Our Take
The earlier £5m JCB order in August already signalled Select Plant Hire’s intent to standardise on newer heavy plant; integrating Xwatch Safety Solutions on this ~30‑unit tranche suggests Select is now using that refresh cycle to hard‑wire proximity and slew control into its UK fleet rather than retrofitting piecemeal.
With many of the 9‑tonne dual‑drive site dumpers destined for major UK projects, embedding Xwatch and Hexagon technology on JCB machines is likely to make these units more attractive to principal contractors facing stringent CDM and temporary works risk controls on congested infrastructure sites.
In our database of Infrastructure pieces, relatively few plant-hire stories are tagged to ‘Safety’ as prominently as this one, which indicates Select is positioning itself less as a pure equipment provider and more as a managed risk partner on large UK construction projects.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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