D Smith Express Ltd – Going for Gold

D Smith Express Ltd is a family run business established in 1969 by Stewart Smith’s parents and was historically a Brick and Block Hauler.  In early 2000 the company made a major change in direction and focused the core business, on the transportation of all portable accommodation units, using lorry loaders. Today the company is run by Stewart, and his wife Sian. The company has seen significant growth, and is now one of the major hauliers, moving site accommodation supplying top tier companies in the South East. With over 4 decades of experience, there are very few logistic challenges they have not conquered. From our base in Essex, close to the M25, D Smith Express Ltd operates a versatile fleet of lorry loaders. These vehicles are fitted with cranes ranging from 36 – 80 ton/metre, their largest hiab is capable of lifting with a range of 26 metres. We have 14 trucks, mainly Scania with Fassi Hiab cranes with all their trucks having trackers fitted.  90% of our company’s operations take place within London and the home counties. D Smith Express specialise in the transportation of all portable accommodation units, plant equipment and machinery throughout the United Kingdom and mainland Europe.

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, so we achieved our Bronze, Silver and Gold Accreditation first time. FORS did help us by providing training and tools that improved the policies and procedures’

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’

‘FORS has helped us achieve compliance and safety’ – Stewart Smith – Managing Director

All our drivers have completed their Safe Urban Driving course. 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 as well.’

‘We have increased our MPG by 10% since our baseline year’ – Stewart Smith –  Managing Director

We have managed to reduce our Parking fines and charges by 90.91% compared to our baseline year. 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 every 6 months 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 have 1 Operating centre and we use it 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 mainly carry portable accommodation units to construction sites across the whole country for clients. As we rely on our customers asking us to deliver to 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 units 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 are replacing all our lorries with Euro 6 engines as and when they are due for replacement. 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 and keep our Parking fines and Charges to as low as possible, until our drivers don’t receive any at all.’

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.