CG Haulage Ltd – Maintaining Gold

We have been established since 1940 and the priority of CG Haulage Ltd has been service and value to our customers. With our specialist fleet of vehicles, we have been able to adapt to the needs of our varied customer base. We service all types of general haulage from the timber trade, steel fabrication, commercial refrigeration, engineering, office & print, granite & marble right through to fragile handling of the art world. Our comprehensive fleet ranges from small vans to specialist Hiab vehicles. CG Haulage operates a wide selection of vehicles which include curtain siders, flat backs with and without Hiab facilities. We work in partnership with some of the UK’s most well-known organisations including Mace, Keltbray, Land lease and have delivered to world famous venues including Regents Park and the new Wembley Stadium. Charles Vince, our Director is our elected Fuel and Emissions Champion and he explains how important FORS is to our Company. Joanne Vince – Director says FORS has definitely brought us forward in the industry and she fully promotes FORS to every company we come across.

Initially we received a request to achieve the FORS accreditation from some of the customers who had stated the accreditation as a requirement for vehicles delivering to their sites.

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’ Since being initially introduced to FORS and achieving accreditation we have had access to many useful tools and workshops that have been a practical and down to earth method of driving the safe and efficient culture which has led to achieving both Silver and Gold accreditations

We take compliance and safety very seriously so we achieved our Bronze and Silver Accreditation first time. We have held a FORS accreditation since 2014. FORS did help us by providing training and tools that improved the policies and procedures for instance we managed to do all our SUD (Safe Urban Driving Course) through FORS and we use the FORS Performance Management Toolkit to record all our Fuel, Mileage, Parking fines and charges and accidents’

‘FORS has helped us achieve compliance and safety.’ – Charles Vince 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 increased our fleet by 18% since our baseline year.’ – Charles Vince Director

We have managed to keep our Parking fines and accidents/incidents down 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.

*No incidents or PCN’s for the past 3 years

• We get all my drivers and office staff 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 employed 3 new staff members, one in our transport office and 2 new drivers. We have implemented 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 pallet 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. There-fore 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.

Using a Lorry is the most cost effective way of moving our clients goods. We are replacing all our lorries 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.

“Meeting FORS standards has helped us focus on safe driving, especially regarding vulnerable road users, whilst the progression from Bronze to Silver has concentrated our attention on monitoring vehicle performance.”

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’

FORS accreditation has definitely been beneficial to us, Gaining FORS Gold Accreditation shows how dedicated we are as a company at CG Haulage Ltd and how we hope to proceed in 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 develop a more eco friendly environment and a safer way for the public to enjoy their everyday life using the roads of London.

We have also managed to make a significant saving by reducing our fuel usage and improving our MPG, as well as reducing the amount of accidents we had on the previous year’s which resulted in our insurance company reducing our premiums. This shows how dedicated we are Gaining FORS Gold Accreditation and how committed we are as a team at CG Haulage Ltd as we take our future and reputation very seriously. As a business our future goals are to replace our fleet with new eco friendly vehicles to travel the roads of London to meet the latest emissions standards. Our future goals is to maintain our FORS Gold Accreditation reputation and develop within the industry by working alongside a variety of companies and encouraging our existing customers to achieve the best they can within the FORS Accreditation.