Established in 2007, F Brazil Reinforcements has grown to become a market leader in the supply of prefabricated reinforced cages in the UK. Based in Essex, we are ideally positioned to deliver a first-class service to London and throughout the UK.

“We supply coil and stock rebars ranging from 8 to 40mm in 6,12,14,15, & 18 metre lengths and have an extensive range of accessories held in stock for use in the construction industry”. Explains Dawn Richardson – Company Transport Manager.

1. Brazil Reinforcements Ltd have achieved significant improvements through FORS (including reductions in fuel use / reduced CO₂ emissions, lowered NOx and Particulate Matter emissions, we have also improved our road safety record, decreased transport related fines and charges etc.)

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.

Once we were Bronze, we decided that we should progress to Silver because we already had everything in place that was required, and our clients would be pushing for us to become Silver accredited shortly.

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. All our drivers have completed their Safe Urban Driving course and 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 the LoCity for Drivers- Driver CPC Course.

‘We have reduced our accidents by 100% in the past 12 months’ – Dawn Richardson Transport Manager.

‘FORS has helped us achieve compliance and safety’ – Dawn Richardson Transport Manager

• We have managed to keep our Parking fines and charges down to zero for the past 3 years and reduced our accidents/incidents by 100% in the past 12 months. 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 have increased our MPG by 0.69% in the past 12 months, but have improved it by 8.67% since 2018.

• We get all my drivers to complete a comprehensive Medical Declaration on an annually basis even though the FORS Standard states once every 5 years. It’s also mentioned in the driver’s 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 is 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 use the Operating centre for parking our lorries and loading our vehicles. Servicing is done by main dealers at their sites not ours. The noise generated is when my lorries are idling so we can carry out our defect checks and when the vehicles are being loaded. All my lorries have white noise reversing alarms fitted to them.
• We run a fleet of Artic Lorries with trailers. We have looked at alternative fuels and alternative transport but after looking at what electric or hybrid vehicles are available on the market currently, we realized there isn’t an artic lorry available that can carry the same load and travel the same distances as we currently do. There aren’t any Electric vehicles or using alternative methods of transport as trains etc. All our vehicles are currently Euro 6 compliant and use adblue already.

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.

We have positively promoted FORS by putting the FORS logo on all our vehicles as well as sending all our suppliers a letter informing them of FORS and encouraging them to join FORS if they haven’t already. We don’t use any sub-contractors or agency drivers.

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.

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