Manor Environmental Ltd – Year two!

Manor Environmental Ltd is based near Windsor and are a haulier of waste materials, with our core business being site clearance and the supply of re-instatement materials.  We run 8 Euro VI Mercedes Arocs with a steel Boweld tipping body.  My name is Dave Tilley and I am our Managing Director and I want to explain how our FORS accreditation is essential to our continuing success.

We were introduced to FORS by our Transport Manager Maggie Webb, who explained that we could demonstrate our best practice by joining the scheme.  At the same time our clients started asking for this accreditation

During our first audit we were impressed by the professionalism, thoroughness and knowledge demonstrated by our auditor.  We successfully completed our first Bronze audit in October 2015 and this gave us confidence in the knowledge that our systems had been audited and approved.

Utilising the knowledge available through FORS, we were able to progress to Silver in January 2017 and Gold in March the same year.  We have made great use of the tool box talks and general compliance information that FORS supplies as part of our registration and as our drivers are registered for on-line learning this encourages them to visit the FORS website when every they want.

Our managing Director (Dave Tilley) says ‘our original Silver accreditation in January 2017 allowed the company access to contracts that were not accessible at Bronze level and this has been a brilliant boost for the company’s growth!’

In 2013 our Transport Manage became a FORS Practitioner and has definitely used the knowledge gained through these workshops within the company and she is looking forward to taking part in the Practitioners refresher course later this year.

Our drivers continue to benefit from the FORS driver training and all have enjoyed the Safe Urban Driving training available free of charge through FORS.  The majority of our drivers will have to complete a Safe Urban Driving course again this year with the added bonus of 7 DCPC hours.

We have definitely seen a difference in the professionalism displayed by our drivers since becoming FORS accredited and our clients have commented on this also.  We are proud that our company is being recognised for its good practice.

Dave Tilley says that ‘With more and more clients requesting the demonstration of higher standards of compliance and accreditation, we have found that our FORS Bronze, Silver and Gold accreditations have allowed us to show our commitment to road safety and the environment.

We are proud to display our FORS logo and confident that this has gained us a reputation of the highest road safety standards amongst our clients and peers‘.

A year has passed since our first Gold accrediation and we are now applying again for its re-accreditation.  As a company, the FORS accreditation is essential to our business and our future growth is dependent on maintaining it.  The brilliant thing about our continuing FORS accreditation, is that it gives us access to work that we would not be normally be able to tender for without!

One area of compliance we have been concentrating on over the past year is the amount of Drivers Hours tachograph infringements that have occurred.  Whilst a lot of these infringements were very minor, they were still considered to be an area that needed improvement.  We have seen a large decrease and our aim the coming year is to see a significant improvement on this.

• In addition to our 6 monthly licence and eye sight checks we have introduced a 6 monthly licence declaration that requests details of any health issues and problems a driver may have. The form also reminds them to check when taking medication prescribed or purchased that they are safe to drive and that these medications need to be reported to the company.  This gives us the opportunity to check the details of the medication ourselves to ensure that it does not have any adverse effects when driving.

  Part of our driver induction contains all of the above elements and is carried out prior to the driver starting work.

• We recognise the shortage within the industry however our driver retention is extremely good and we have not needed to employ any drivers for the past year. In 2016 we helped a new member of staff get his category C licence entitlement with the intention of driving for us however his administration, IT skills and knowledge of industry compliance was so good he is now works in our Transport Office and assists our Managing Director.
• As an internal process, Manor Environmental have undertaken our own noise risk assessment and review. Our drivers have been issued with our Noise Pollution policy and operating procedures to ensure that the drivers are aware of their responsibilities.
• Manor Environmental is aware of the impact our vehicles have on the public and environment. It is of great concern to us that our capital is in breach of the legal limits for NOX.  Our vehicle choices are driven by our wish to decrease our impact on the environment.  Our vehicle replacement policy is to upgrade our fleet whenever possible with lower emission vehicles.

  Since we first became FORS accredited in 2015, we have replaced the majority of our fleet and all our vehicle are now Euro VI.

Our goal has always been to concentrate on the important elements of road safety along with key management aspects of sustainability and environmental awareness and FORS has given us the tools to accomplish this.  Our aim is to ensure our compliance covers all areas and we will soon be activating the compliance Telematics software data that is now available to us and this in turn will help us measure the performance of our vehicles and drivers.

Manor Environmental first became Silver and Gold accredited to show our improvement and progression within the FORS structure.  Our contracts are now requiring the higher level of accreditation and our re-accreditation will demonstrate to our staff, clients and competitors our continuing commitment to FORS and road safety.

https://www.manortippers.com/

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