Belle Haulage Ltd – Going for Gold

Belle Haulage Ltd is a small run company that has been around for 12 years and is now located in Barking. The company is firmly founded on old-fashioned values without being stuck in the past. We currently have 2 lorries including a brand new Euro 6 lorry. We deliver a wide spectrum waste management and recycling to the construction industry and we work directly with the major construction companies. Gilbert Belle, our Managing Director is our elected Fuel and Emissions Campion and he explains how important FORS is to our Company.’

We came across FORS when tendering for work across London. When we looked at the requirements and benefits of joining the scheme we saw that they fitted in perfectly with our ethos of improving safety whilst complementing our drive to improve fuel efficiency and reduce our environmental impact’

We take compliance and safety very seriously. FORS did help us by providing training and tools that improved the policies and procedures with our Bronze Accreditation ‘

The performance management toolkit really helped us set our targets for reducing our carbon footprint and improving our MPG. FORS has helped us improve our filing systems and procedures as well’

‘FORS has helped us achieve compliance and safety’ – Gilbert Belle – Managing Director

All our drivers have completed their Safe Urban Driving course which was funded by the Transport for London. We have also invested heavily in vehicle safety systems cameras, nearside proximity sensors and audible alarms for all our vehicles. All our drivers have also completed FORS E-Learning modules.’

‘We have improved our MPG by 10.59% since our baseline year’ – Gilbert Belle – Managing Director

• We have kept our accidents and Parking fines to zero for the past 3 years. We achieved this by making sure we always selected the best route possible to all our sites and we plan ahead before leaving the yard

• We get all my drivers to complete a comprehensive Medical Declaration on a annually basis even though the FORS Standard states once every 5 years. It’s also mentioned in the drivers handbook that if they at any point in time start suffering from a medical condition they need to notify the company ASAP as well as if they need to start taking medication prescribed by their GP or over the counter drugs. We will then investigate it to see if it’s still safe for the driver to be driving for the company and we may even ask the driver to get a letter from his doctor informing the company if he is still able to drive for the company. We will then start doing more driver assessments on the driver to make sure he isn’t a risk to the company or anyone on the road.
• We have recently adopted a recruitment policy to try and help us recruit young drivers into the Transport industry.
• We only use the Operating centre for parking our lorries. We don’t do any loading/ unloading on site and all our servicing is done by main dealers at their sites not ours. The only noise generated is when my lorries are idling so we can carry out our defect checks. All my lorries have white noise reversing alarms fitted to them.
• We carry waste soil and aggregates to and from construction sites across the whole country. As we rely on our customers asking us to deliver and collect from various construction sites across the whole country, we never know where we are going until they need us. Therefore we can’t afford to try and move anything via barge or train as we collect all the waste soil and aggregates from building sites and there is no other method than using a lorry and we then asked to deliver anywhere in the country. So using a Lorry is the most cost effective way of moving our clients goods. We have replaced one of our older lorrys with a brand new Euro 6 lorry. We have looked at electric vehicles and because of the weights we carry and the fact that our lorries have specialist equipment fitted no manufacture have produced an alternative fuelled vehicle that can carry the weight we do and go over the same terrain we do.

We will continue using what FORS has taught us to improve our MPG and reduce any wasted idling we might have.’

Gaining FORS Gold Accreditation shows how dedicated we are as a company to improving road safety and the safety of all vulnerable road users in London as well as nationally. We will continuously use what FORS has taught us to help reduce our carbon footprint and make the roads so safer for everyone that uses them. We have also managed to make a significant saving by reducing our fuel usage and improving our MPG.

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