Section 1 – Introduction

Galaxy Insulation and Dry Lining was established in 2009 with warehouses situated in Sheffield and Leeds.  Owned and managed by a highly dedicated and motivated team with years of Construction Industry experience. Following the success of these two branches, we opened a new North West site at Haydock in September 2016. Ever since, we have continued to grow and expand our business through more key locations across England – opening a Birmingham branch in April 2017 as well as a West Brom branch in Spring 2020, and along the way we even opened two new branches across London.

At Galaxy, we are always striving to improve and expand. We are never content with just sitting still – for both our Sheffield and Leeds depots we upgraded by moving to brilliant new 30,000 square ft warehouses. In 2019, a Management Buyout (MBO) was completed, which combines the four separate Galaxy businesses into a single entity.

Our continued growth has allowed Galaxy to become a market leading independently owned insulation supplier, winning an award for being one of the 50 fastest growing companies across Yorkshire and are proud to work with leading Dry Lining and Insulation manufacturers.

Section 2 – How did you hear about FORS, what prompted the company to join and how long have you been a member?

With the opening of a branch to cover West London, an increasing amount of customers enquired about our FORS status. We decided to apply in December 2019 and were accredited with Bronze and shortly after.  We later were successful in obtaining Silver for a solo site in West London. At this point, we opened our other depot in East London so we made the decision to go for a MOCA application to cover all our depots. This was successful in March 2020 for Bronze and Silver in June 2020. We found that in the original registration that FORS was very useful in demonstrating best practice for all our company with regards to policies and procedures.

Section 3 – What was your experience of the initial FORS Bronze audit?

We found the whole experience very positive. Due to changing from a solo site to a MOCA and getting silver all in the first year of being with FORS, this meant that we had to have four bronze audits. Which we passed with no problems and we when straight through silver with ease.

Section 4 – What was your main reason(s) for you progressing (either from Bronze to Silver and then Silver to Gold or straight from Bronze to Gold)?

We applied for FORS in December 2019 for a solo site first with bronze then soon after to silver. Once we had done this, we saw the benefits that using FORS as a standard for all our depots and changed to a MOCA with silver accreditation by July 2020. We are going for a gold accreditation for all our depots to show other companies we are taking FORS very seriously and want to stand out as being a company of very high standards.

Once accredited, we really made the most of the benefits on offer, in particular… FORS Fleet Management System (FORS FMS)/ FORS Practitioner workshops/ FORS Vehicle Graphic Service, FORS Associates offers and discounts, etc.]’The FORS eLearning helped us to improve the knowledge of our drivers to a higher standard

“The fleet management essentials training I have received on the course gave me a better understanding and insight into the operations of running the fleet.” – Mandy Sharp, operations manager at West Thurrock.

“I found the eLearning made me more aware of the emissions from vehicles to the surrounding public due to the Lo-City learning course for the reason being I suffer from asthma myself and don’t want other people to suffer unnecessarily.” – Stephen Aucott. HGV driver Birmingham

Section 6 – What improvements have you made?

These shall include:

	MPG	Incidents per 100,000 Kms	CO2	NOx	PM10	Number of PCNs	Proportion of fleet that uses alternative fuels
Year 1	9.72	17	4584.72	1863.2	28.28	6	0%
Year 2	17.76	18	1173.34	1809.41	28.25	56	0%
Percentage improvement	82.7%	5.9%	74.4%	2.9%	0.1%	833.3%	0%

All drivers’ now complete six monthly eyesight tests, health and fitness declarations. We have an open door policy regarding any physical or mental health concerns to encourage staff to come forward so we can help with their needs.

Due to noise and environmental pollution, we are in the process of changing all our depots forklift trucks to electric from gas. Eighteen out of the 24 have already been changed within the last 12 months. All of our depots are on industrial estates but we keep our movements of any vehicles and plant machines to between the hrs of 06:00 and 17:00hrs.

We have looked at alternative delivery vehicles for our ever-expanding fleet and have chosen to stay with Mercedes lease as they give the best Direct vision ours are 4 star and fuel economy for our needs all Euro 6. We are also looking at obtaining electric vans this is ongoing.

With all our drivers having completed their classroom training on Lo-City and Safe Urban Driving courses. Along with regularly completing their FORS E-Learning modules and have just completed a online drivers risk assessment for Attitude, Knowledge, Observation and Hazard Perception in conjunction with AXA Insurance to high light any potential additional training that may be needed and raise their awareness even more on vulnerable road users.

We are currently training three warehouse staff to become HGV drivers as part of our company wide incentive for promoting staff into the driving sector where we pay for all the requirements to obtain their licence.

Section 7 – What are your plans for the future?

We are currently looking at electric vans through a lease with 7Asset (a FORS accredited company) they have also looked into HGV electrical vehicles for us but as yet this is not available to us. We have taken two low entry curtain sided vans within the last two months and have one more on order these are both low entry for the cab and a low floor for the loading area. All our HGVs are 4 star rated direct vision standard.

Section 8 – What evidence do you have of positively promoting FORS at requirement G7?

We positively promote FORS on our WEB site and on email signatures and are proud to display the FORS logo with our silver standard on the rear and sides of our vehicles. We also promote on other media sites stating our FORS accreditation.

Section 9 –What FORS Gold accreditation means for your organisation/to you?

We are aiming for gold to show that we stand for the best we can in fuel efficiency.  Training drivers to a high standard to be amongst the best in our industry and to do as much as possible to help the environment.  By educating both our drivers and management with the help of FORS and to show our customers we are committed to exceed industry standards. As we use the FORS logo on emails signatures and our website to show our customers we are of a high standard with our silver accreditation, we would value progress to Gold.

Section 10 – (Optional) Please provide your social media contact details so we can follow your organisation

 

Section 11 – FORS members’ feedback questionnaire

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