Valley Tractions Services Ltd Leading by Example

Valley Services is a family run business that has been established for over 25 years specializing in road haulage services, self-loading vehicles and trailers. We have numerous long standing contracts with high profile companies throughout Norfolk, the UK and Europe. Here at Valley Services we are committed to providing the highest standards of workmanship with the very best cost effective prices, whether our clients are large or small. We at Valley Services are totally committed to our clients and their requirements. We work closely with all of our customers to fully understand the service that they require – we are able to provide a wealth of experience and expertise to handle all manner of difficult loads. Mark Crisp is our Health & Safety Manager, and we have elected him to be our Fuel and Emissions Champion and he explains how important FORS is to our Company.

FORS dovetails our business principles and ethics. When we looked at the requirements and benefits of joining the scheme, we saw that they fit 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.’ – Mark Crisp – Health & Safety Manager

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.

‘We have increased our MPG by 2.51% since our baseline year.’ – Mark Crisp – Health & Safety Manager

We have managed to keep our Parking fines and accidents/incidents down to zero for the last 2 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.

*No incidents or PCN’s for the past 2 years.

• 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. In the past 4 years we have put 3 drivers through their HGV Drivers Licences.
• 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 Portacabins, Shipping Containers and Waste Water Tanks 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 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. We have also managed to make a significant saving by reducing our fuel usage and improving our MPG.