Kilnbridge Construction Services Ltd Driving Change in driver behaviour

Kilnbridge is a multidiscipline construction and engineering business specialising in structural works packages with dedicated business units in Concrete Cutting and Controlled Demolition, Fabrication, Fire Protection and Waste Management. We work on projects and contracts throughout London and the UK and our head office is based in Cody Road Business Park, East London. Since achieving our FORS accreditation we have increased safety measures, improved efficiency and reduced fuel consumption amongst our fleet of vehicles.

We were initially notified about FORS by our clients, who advised that the company should be compliant with the standards that the scheme promotes. After looking into FORS further and studying the requirements to join, we quickly realised that FORS would assist us in highlighting the best practices that we employ and lowering our fleet expenditure through advanced and beneficial fuel saving techniques.

We successfully passed our initial FORS Bronze Audit at the first attempt in 2010. Aside from demonstrating that we had an effective Occupational Road Risk Policy, the experience highlighted the range of training opportunities, best practice advice and safety, efficiency and environmental protection insight that we were immediately keen to explore further.

After passing the Bronze audit, we wanted to utilise the recommendations provided coupled with the tools and training available through FORS in order to help us improve further. We began working to achieve our Silver accreditation by incorporating measures to improve fleet safety such as Blind Spot Cameras, Side Under Run Guards and Audible Warning Alarms. We also installed a vehicle telemetry system for our fleet which enabled us to monitor real time environmental factors such as idling, fuel consumption and CO2 usage as well as driver behaviour

‘We identified that policies, procedures and safety devices alone would not protect vulnerable road users.’ – Martin Scott, Health, Safety, Environmental & Quality Director

In addition to the above, we have installed forward facing cameras in our entire fleet in order to provide 360° footages from all vehicles and our specialist construction plant as part of our overall safety strategy. The cameras continuously record footage, which has helped us to review accidents and driver behaviour in conjunction with vehicle telemetry. This footage and data is also used as part of our Driver Education Programme to deliver toolbox talks and improve driver awareness and behaviours. As well as improving the safety of our vehicles on the road, the availability of this footage has significantly reduced the time required to process insurance claims and costs associated with claims handling as well as assisting the business in defending bogus claims

‘Camera footage is used to produce driver toolbox talks to educate and develop driver awareness whilst improving behaviours.’ – Terry Duff, Transport and Logistics Co-Ordinator

We identified that policies, procedures and vehicle safety devices alone would not be sufficient to protect vulnerable road users. As a result, in order to achieve Gold, we introduced many of the training resources available through FORS (including SUDS, LDT, SAFED) to our Driver Training and Development Programme. This was supplemented by members of our Management Team undertaking the FORS Practitioner modules to help maintain and further develop our Policy and Systems to retain Gold accreditation

Since achieving Gold accreditation in 2016 we have reduced our CO2, Particulate Matter and NOx emissions by 6% and fuel use by 1%, despite completing 20% more deliveries in London during this period. This has been achieved through our meticulous planning of routes and regular tyre pressure and wheel alignment checks, which has assisted in reducing our carbon emissions. Throughout the last 12 months, our Transport and Logistics Co-ordinator has also monitored driver behaviour and identified patterns to introduce measures that have reduced fuel wastage (see table below) and idling time to re-educate our drivers in a more efficient and effective driving style.

• Driver Health and Fitness Review, all of our employees are required to fill out an Occupational Health questionnaire and we actively promote the Government’s cycle to work scheme in order to promote a healthier lifestyle throughout the organisation. We also have all the drivers registered with the CBH constructing better health medical review programme.
• Strategy for recruiting new drivers, in order to encourage new and young drivers in to the industry we target local schools and colleges through recruitment drives and careers fairs such as one we attended recently at Brentwood High School.
• Noise Reduction, in order to manage the noise pollution created by the business, the HSE&Q department annually review our register of environmental impacts which acts as our guideline for safe and efficient working practices. This includes all of our transport operations.
• Modal Shift, we have centralised delivery and scheduling through our logistics co-ordinator, to reduce vehicle movements and utilised telematics to plan routes, avoid congestion and keep journeys as smooth as possible.

We operate a car sharing policy, promote the use of public transport, the cycle to work scheme and utilise skype for business conference calling to minimise our environmental impacts and as a result we have reduced miles travelled, fuel usage and Co2 emissions.

We will continue to promote the FORS standards within our business and supply chain to continually improve fleet, driver and vulnerable road user safety.

Furthermore, using the FORS driver training, telematics, we are in the process of implementing a driver performance scheme to reduce wasted fuel, lower emissions and improve driver behaviour.

We would be proud to be accredited to FORS Gold as it would represent the considerable improvements we have been able to make to our fleet’s safety, efficiency and environmental impact and work we will undertake to maintain and enhance these standards in the future. It would also underline our dedication to road safety and continually improving the skills and performances of our workers to ensure that our fleet and its operations are .an asset to the company which regularly achieve exemplary levels of best practice.

LinkedIn: Kilnbridge Construction Services Limited (www.linkedin.com/company/kilnbridge-construction-services-lmited)

Please note: All published FORS Gold case studies have been submitted by the accredited company named above and transcribed verbatim.