Tipper & Grab Hire Ltd- Going for Gold

EPD Tipper Hire Ltd is a Purfleet based Tipper and Grab hire company, We have been in business for 17 years now, the company started by three friends who worked together as tipper drivers the owner and directors are Chris Davies, John Kehoe and Patrick Kehoe.  We are continually building upon our reputation for delivering high quality services to the building industry.’

We came across FORS while talking to the transport manager of Erith Haulage. We were keen to learn more about the scheme so sent off for some more information, we felt this was a great opportunity to help with the safety of the vulnerable road users and further our fleet operations’

We take compliance and safety very seriously, so we achieved our Bronze, Silver and Gold Accreditation. We already had all of the management systems required to achieve the Bronze level.’

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 improved and furthered driver knowledge through the training resources provided by FORS’ – Patrick Kehoe Director

‘We have increased our MPG by 7.13% compared to last year’ – Patrick Kehoe Director

We have improved our MPG across the fleet by 7.13% in the previous 12 months. Our MPG was 5.75 MPG and in the past 12 months our MPG was 6.16 MPG on average. 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 have also implemented a redeployment Policy and an Equal Opportunities Policy.
• We only have 1 Operating centre and we use it for parking our lorries. We don’t do any loading/ unloading on site. 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 waste soil and aggregates to/from construction sites across the London and home counties. As we rely on our customers asking us to collect/deliver to various construction sites across the London and home counties, 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/ deliver all the waste soil and aggregates to/from building sites and there is no other method than using a lorry and we then asked to deliver anywhere London and home counties. So using a Lorry is the most cost effective way of moving our clients goods. All our lorries are Euro 6 vehicles. 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.’

We promote FORS by sending all our client, suppliers and sub-contractors letters telling them they have to be FORS accredited if they want to be working with us. We promote FORS on our email signatures, Company letterhead and our vehicles too.

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

*Please note: All published FORS Gold case studies have been submitted by the accredited company named above and transcribed verbatim