J and S Wilkinson Services Ltd – Going for Gold

J and S Wilkinson Services Ltd is the premier choice for low loader hire in London and the South East. Based in Essex, J and S Wilkinson Services Ltd specialises in the movement of plant and equipment for all types of businesses in the UK. J and S Wilkinson Services Ltd is fully insured and is one of London’s leading transport companies. All our Low Loaders are available on a number of flexible terms and these include: hourly basis, contract and fixed price. All of our drivers are fully IPAF and NPORS competent in loading and unloading vehicles – vital when you have heavy or awkward loads that need the ultimate care and attention at all points of the delivery process. Steve Wilkinson – Managing Director says FORS has definitely brought them forward in the industry and he fully promotes FORS to every company he comes across.

We came across FORS when tendering for work across London including Crossrail and Tideway.

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 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.

Steve Wilkinson Managing Director says,

‘FORS has helped us achieve compliance and safety.’

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, audible alarms and arrest rails for all our vehicles. All our drivers have also completed FORS E-Learning modules.

Steve Wilkinson says,

‘We have increased our fleet by 125% since our baseline year.’

*No incidents or PCN’s for the past 4 years.

• We have managed to keep our Parking fines and accidents/incidents down to zero for the last 4 years in a row. 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 heavy equipment to and from construction sites across the whole country. We move anything from a digger to a crane. As we rely on our customers asking us to collect equipment 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 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 as and when they are due with Euro 6 engines. 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 zero’

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.

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