S. Porretta & Sons Ltd – Going for Gold

Founded in 1912, S. Porretta & Sons Ltd has established a reputation for reliability, quality and service. Now in its fourth generation of family ownership, the company has embraced new technology, modern working methods and has a team of dedicated workers. We offer a wide range of distribution services and always provide the very highest level of service with fully trained drivers and an excellent safety record. Steve Porretta, Managing Director, explains how working in partnership with FORS has helped to achieve an increase in profitability.

We were introduced to FORS when requested to work for the Crossrail project in Greater London. Recognising the potential benefits of joining FORS, notably driver training, improved best practise and reduced penalty charges, we were keen to get involved. 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 and Silver Accreditation. Upon completion of the FORS bronze assessment in July 2014 and recognising the improvement in many of our processes within the company, we were encouraged to begin working towards silver accreditation, which we proudly gained in 2015 and have kept ever since. FORS did help us by providing training and tools that improved the policies and procedures.

Upon becoming a FORS accredited company we put to use the resources and knowledge that S. Porretta & Sons Ltd gained. We put all of our drivers through Crossrail & Safe Urban Driving courses, thus instilling their confidence in new and existing procedures and increasing their safety and environmental awareness.

Steve Porretta – Director says,

‘FORS has modified the way we look at driver training and vehicle safety.’

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.

Steve Porretta – Director says,

‘We have increased our MPG by 60.51% since our baseline year.’

We have managed to reduce our accidents/incidents down to zero Since 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 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 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 carry plant equipment to construction sites across the whole country. 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 equipment 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.

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.