SA Smith – Going for Gold

S.A Smith Ltd is a specialist hauler company which was started up by Stewart Smith in 2003 with only one vehicle and trailer. We now have 4 Lorry’s on our Fleet and our clients keep coming to us for our reputation for excellence. Our aim is to make the movement of your consignment as pleasant an experience as possible for you the customer. We have a wide range of varying customers from blue chip companies in civil engineering. We enjoy a large amount of repeat business because of our high service levels and quality. With a team of vastly experienced drivers and the latest vehicles and trailers available we will endeavour to move your goods on time in a safe and efficiently manner. Stewart Smith, Transport Manager and Owner is our elected Fuel and Emissions Campion and he explains how important FORS is to our Company.

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 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.

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

All our drivers have completed their Safe Urban Driving cours. 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 improved our MPG by 8.64% compared to our baseline year’ – Stewart Smith Managing Director

We have managed to reduce our Parking fines and charges down to zero for the past 2 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

• 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.

Maintaining our 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.