The roadways of the world are safer with Royal Truck & Equipment protecting work zones. When you spot their impressive trucks managing traffic along the highway, featuring their TMAs (Truck Mounted Attenuators) onboard, you’re safer. Your workers are certainly safer in those exposed work areas with the powerful safety management effects of attenuators, and your company is safer too, if you ever face a liability claim. Now, Royal is taking safety to the next level, rolling out new innovative trucks and equipment for enhanced safety in road work zones.
The extent of public safety signals for work on smaller roads once involved no more than a guy in jeans and dirty tee shirt slowly flapping a safety flag, and highways had caution banners tied to pickup bed tails. Today, safety road work looks different. Full-scale, state-of-the-art attenuators on heavy equipment caravan in lateral groups spanning the interstates. Even more advancements in this industry — critical to powersweeping services for road work — are coming this year.
The Industry Impact of Royal Truck & Equipment
The influence of Royal Truck & Equipment on safety equipment design and manufacturing has changed the level of expectation for safety management on US roadways. That means the innovator has further changed the way powersweeping trucks operate. The role of TMAs from Royal has been integral in increasing road safety for sweeper truck drivers, road construction and repair crews, and the public on busy highways, county roads, and urban thoroughfares.
The use of TMAs to protect road workers and the public has expanded. Now, construction sites, landscaping crews, public works departments, school zones, public events managers, law enforcement, and traffic control companies are just some of those using TMAs to improve safety.
Street Sweeping and Attenuator Trucks
Taylor Wills of Royal Truck, along with Joe Hendrickson of Schwarze Industries, a leading sweeper truck manufacturer, were on a recent call with NAS. (Joe was talking from his car in New York City.) We discussed what’s most important to communicate to the sweeping industry readers about modern attenuators for safety.
Joe began counting attenuators as talked with us while driving out of Manhattan and into central New Jersey. In just 45 minutes, he counted an estimated 10 to 12 TMA trucks. In some areas, they were seemingly around every corner. That image is representative of the future of highway safety in the mega network of dense intersecting freeways, entering NJ from lower Manhattan.
Joe commented on ideas for attenuator messaging:
“The thing that jumps out to me is the relationship between street sweepers and attenuators. Sweepers operate at around 5 to 7 miles per hour, about 60 mph less than the traffic going past it is doing. That significant gap in speed between the oncoming traffic and the sweeper inherently creates the potential for a crash.
They’ll try to put trailing vehicles behind them to do traffic control, to create distance, or they’ll put board signs on the back of their trucks. But it doesn’t really provide maximum safety for the operator or for oncoming traffic. When a distracted driver impacts the heavy, solid street sweeper at 70 mph, it’s death.
When I started attending tradeshows, I found that there are also sweeper companies that have attenuator trucks in their fleets.”
While attenuator trucks have long been a staple in highway maintenance and traffic control work zones, their use in sweeping operations is a newer development that makes perfect sense.
The Royal Distinction in TMA Trucks
Many TMA trucks may look the same at first glance, but it’s the details that separate a safe build from an unsafe one. What differentiates Royal-built TMA trucks and sets them apart from the rest is an uncompromising focus on safety at every level of the build.
“We want people to recognize that when they see a Royal TMA out on the road, it’s the safest in the industry,” Taylor said. “From the design of the body itself to how we weigh the truck to the design of the man buckets, to the attenuators we use, every consideration is taken to make sure that in the event of a crash, the people working in the zone as well as the impacting driver go home safe.”
The technology Royal layers on top of their standard builds not only goes the extra mile to reduce the chance of accidents, it also protects business owners from potential liability claims.
“We have message boards that can be equipped directly to any existing attenuator truck that alert drivers to their vehicle’s speed,” Taylor continued. “It’s human nature to hit the brakes when you see that number flashing. We also have it overlayed into our DVR recording system, so if a contractor has to go into a lawsuit, it shows how fast the driver was moving.
Deterrents like that technology and the truck’s arrow board combine to help keep workers and the public safe. They protect your equipment from damage and keep your business safe when a crash accident happens.”
Taylor concluded, “At every stage of the build, we’re thinking about what happens when something goes wrong. When you see a Royal TMA truck, we want you to know you’re protected and that we’ve got you six.”
Introducing New Equipment from Royal
New equipment and services from Royal Truck & Equipment will debut this year to take operator and public safety, and roadwork efficiency to the next level. Here are the highlights:
Guardian TMA trucks
Guardian Series TMA trucks are Royal’s premier product line of work zone vehicles. While the Guardian name is new, the trucks themselves are built on years of refinement and feature the latest in specialized TMA design. Several variations of the model are offered:
- Guardian TMA1: This is the base version, and ideal for companies only needing the truck for protection
- Guardian TMA3: This model features high versatility. It includes side man buckets for improved safety of highway operation, and its 15 foot bed is lined with large equipment storage racks.
- Guardian TMA4: This is the heavy-duty option for maximum safety protection. Its 18 foot body provides even more space to transport traffic control devices.
- Guardian Metro TMA: It’s an excellent choice for smaller vehicles used for TMAs in urban environments.
Royal has also pushed innovation beyond standard builds, becoming the first to introduce an autonomous (self-driving) TMA truck while also offering configurations built on all-electric chassis.
Multi-Use & Specialty Configurations
Alongside their line of standard Guardian TMA truck builds, Royal also delivers specialized solutions built for the real demands of the field.
For sweeping operations, their Side Dump TMA truck has quickly proven to be an invaluable asset to the companies that are utilizing it. With a full-size dump body that keeps debris collected to be stored on site, cutting down on trips to unload, and a MASH-approved attenuator, this truck combines safety management with productivity. The ability to dump side-to-side lets crews unload the debris right from the shoulder, without the need to reposition into live traffic or leave the work zone.
To provide greater safety and efficiency in their operations, many organizations need multifunctionality. That’s where Royal’s 3-in1 and hooklift TMA trucks come into play, giving crews the ability to maximize their options for using the truck.
Whether it’s the 3 in 1 truck’s versatility to be equipped with an attenuator for protection, a man basket for traffic control, or run as a stake body, or a hooklift truck that allows multiple bodies to be interchanged on a single chassis, Royal’s specialty builds help organizations maximize how their fleet is used.
Customer Comments on Royal Truck & Equipment
From the leading sweeper truck manufacturer to sweeping companies from coast to coast, the powersweeping industry has become an exemplar of public safety management. The great shift in the quality of that effort is attributable to Royal Trucks advanced TMA technologies and work zone truck options.
Atlantic Sweeping, Giovanni Recalde, Virginia
When we’re doing highway operations, which we’ve been doing for road construction companies and municipalities for about 12 years now, we always have a good experience with Royal’s attenuator trucks. They’re super space savers compared to others we’ve used. We use the TMAs now for multiple things.
We have two TMAs that are on a rollout type of truck so we can swap out the beds with a dump truck or we can swap them out to use a TMA with an air board on back. They’re especially great for small sites. It reduces the number of drivers we have to send for a small task.
More Clean, Cole Moore, Texas
We have confidence that we can always depend on the team at Royal. They have been outstanding in answering any questions we have and offering great options for any truck that we’re looking to purchase. Their knowledge and customer service has been exceptional.
Changing US Safety Laws Increase Attenuator Demand
Joe mentioned that there’s an updated Virginia law that takes effect in July 2026, which will require attenuators for public safety during road work, noting that Texas already has strict laws requiring their use. Some states do not yet have requirements put into law, while others do — Operators should check their state’s safety regulations.
In any case, the USDOT Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) requires Truck-Mounted Attenuators as well as shadow vehicles for worker safety in the majority of both stationary and mobile lane closures.
Joe said that Schwarze, along with other sweeping companies that do a lot of support for highway construction and repair operations, have already started putting the required equipment in place. He said they’ve been helping Schwarze retrofit trucks with the Scorpion style attenuators and message boards, and customers have been running them behind our sweepers.
Down the Road with Royal Truck & Equipment TMAs
To recap, we’re all safer with Royal Guardian attenuator trucks out there on the roads where our employees are working, and our families and friends are traveling every day, around the clock. In having our ‘six’, whenever we need them, Royal provides reassurance for road crews, and it can be a major liability saver in the road construction and powersweeping industries.
As you can see, there are a lot of new options coming from Royal Truck & Equipment this year that can be incorporated to upgrade your roadway operations safety and efficiency. The only thing left to wonder is what this great industry innovator will come up with next to even further enhance roadway safety for us.
For information about TMAs from Royal Truck & Equipment, you can call (855) 202-7129 or visit royaltruckandquipment.com.