Advanté Ltd – Going for Gold

Advanté invented the concept of instant start welfare through our Oasis range and are now the supplier of choice for many of the major players in the construction industry. Our brand name has become the generic term for welfare units, but please don’t forget that not all welfare units are Oasis units! Our reputation is based on our quality product and service as well as our pro-active approach and the importance we place on understanding our Customer’s requirements. We have in place a Client Charter for the Oasis experience, which outlines our commitment to our Clients and details the service you can expect from Advanté and Oasis.

We recognise that generally speaking there are a number of interested parties involved with every project, from the buyer, site manager, contracts managers, safety manager and of course the operatives on site, they all have an interest in the successful provision of welfare on site and all parties are carefully considered and looked after in your dealings with Advanté. In addition to providing quality site accommodation to your site, we are increasingly recognised as a leading reliable transport provider. The capability of our lorries means we are able to carry out a full range of transport services; from delivering cabins to your site, moving your owned accommodation site-to-site or moving materials on site. Stuart Hyde, our Transport Manager 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 save money on fuel and achieve compliance’ – Stuart Hyde Transport Manager

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 improved our MPG by 8.41% since our baseline year’ – Stuart Hyde Transport Manager

We have managed reduce our accidents/incidents by 67% compared to our baseline year. We have also reduced our Parking fines and charges by 100% compared to 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 Occupational Medical 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 as we are very short on drivers.
• We only use the Operating centre for parking our lorries. As we are a hauler we go to a site pick up the products and then go drop it off where the client has specified. Very rarely would we bring a load back to our yard and if we do it would stay on the lorry which means there is also no added noise. 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 mainly move portacabins. As we rely on our customers asking us to collect the 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 accidents 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. We have also managed to make a significant saving by reducing our fuel usage and improving our MPG. We have also reduced the amount of accidents we had on the previous year which resulted in our insurance company reducing our premiums.