Mark Luck Ltd based in Swanley, Kent, specialises in waste services and grab hire. We provide our services to the construction and building industry. Our fleet of vehicles engages in the supply of all types of primary aggregates, recycled aggregates and top soil. Rachel Archbutt HR Manager explains how the company has used FORS to make improvements on road safety and lower emissions. Since 2011 the company’s infrastructure has grown and improved significantly since being introduced to FORS. Mark Luck the Managing Director overseas reduction in fuel use, reduced CO2 emissions and reduced fines and PCNs. We have also have a Compliance Manager Elizabeth Carter to make sure all our lorries are fully compliant in regards to safety on the roads.

Customer compliance meant that we had to become bronze and silver accredited to work on certain sites. The benefits of joining FORS it was clearly apparent that having this standard of accreditation would benefit our company and its safety procedures. FORS bronze has helped improve our policies and procedures and has given us the tools to train our drivers about vulnerable road users. E-Learning has been brilliant in training our drivers. Silver accreditation has meant that we have had to look closely at reducing CO2 emissions and vehicle fines.

Achieving silver accreditation meant that as a company we are actively aiming to improve the overall safety of our fleet which ensures the standard within the industry. We continue to monitor fleet efficiency through base line data and manging work related road risk. Moving onto Gold accreditation has meant that driver health and fitness has been brought to our attention. Helping drivers to think about their health and how to improve it has been vital amongst our fleet of drivers. We continue to provide information on having a healthier heart and losing weight.  Better monitoring of noise assessments has also contributed to our efficiency in regards to the environment and community.

Gaining bronze and Silver meant that we have set our safety standards even higher. Some sites required the FORS Gold which then gave us the drive to achieve this standard. Gaining the bronze and silver FORS standard has meant that we can go onto large construction sites with a high standard of driver and vehicle compliance.

‘We will continue to support and promote the FORS scheme whenever possible. The accreditation has helped our company to gain access to larger sites within London’ -Mark Luck- Managing director/ Transport manager.

Rachel Archbutt attended all the FORS practitioners courses. She found the courses extremely helpful in examining procedures in regards to accidents, collisions and incidents. We have noticed a steady improvement amongst the fleet.  We believe this is due to the high level of compliance that FORS requires. All of our drivers have completed the safe urban driving course and continue to learn from the FORS E-Learning. We provide onsite CPC training to make sure all our drivers are up to date with training.

‘FORS Gold accreditation raises the standard amongst hauliers   -Mark Luck Managing Director/Transport Manager.

Silver accreditation has helped Mark Luck Ltd be more aware of all the safety features that our lorries require. All vehicles have four way cameras to reduce the risk of vulnerable road users on the road. We are also improving our fleet with low level passenger windows on newer vehicles. Webfleet telematics has helped in reducing fuel and Co2 emissions. Gaining Silver has meant that as a company we have a high accreditation that allows access on restricted sites. Being fully compliant is a major factor of the running of our company. Moving onto Gold accreditation shows our customers that we are significantly improving our fleet and drivers. We highly recommend any fleet to become FORS compliant no matter how big or small it would benefit the company on safety and compliance. All our vehicles have gained the new Direct Vision Standard permit to be able to enter London zones. Being FORS silver meant we already had vehicles that were to this standard.

• Drivers are educated on reducing Incidents and accidents through FORS toolbox talks and E-learning. We believe this is down to the high level of safety features on our vehicles and educating drivers about vulnerable road users. Parking and loading in appropriate places to reduce the company’s PCN’s has also been an area we have improved. It is our company policy that the driver pays for parking fines that they may incur; this has shown a decrease in fines. Mark Luck Ltd is working to improve the fleet in this area. Collision management is important to the company to decrease the incident and accident rate. We have regular quarterly insurance meetings to discuss any frequency issues, and improvements that can be made.

• Driver health and fitness declaration is conducted on new drivers and then every year for existing drivers. Any health problems are addressed and information provided for drivers that have any issues. As a company we have implemented free fruit at work to encourage healthy eating amongst our workforce. We have also joined the bike to work scheme which our drivers have made use of. We are actively trying to encourage our drivers to have a healthier lifestyle. We have created a gym/training room that drivers can make use of before and after work. Eye sight tests are conducted for all new drivers and every 6 months after that.
• To recruit new drivers we have put adverts on job centre plus and indeed. Previously we have been to school careers day. However for the HGV drivers we require they need to be of a certain age and experience, it was a good day to promote driving as a future career. We use social media to advertise for driving jobs also. We fully train all new drivers to the FORS standard we require.
• Noise assessment is carried out once a year which takes into consideration noise produced from our haulage yard, noise from our vehicles and any other noise that could disturb local residents. All our vehicles have white noise reversing alarms fitted to be used at certain times.
• All of our vehicles are Euro VI standard. We have tried to use bio fuel and LPG Gas. Neither was cost affective they didn’t save fuel and ended up causing more problems with blocked filters. Electric powered vehicles need more work from the manufacturers to produce a vehicle that carries the weight and material we deliver and covers the terrain of construction sites. However we have been looking into other modes of transport and how they could help us to remove waste from London. Using the railway or the river could be an option for future modal shift.

We want to encourage a healthier lifestyle amongst our workforce, By giving our staff free fruit and encouraging bike to work scheme. We have had great interest in the bike scheme, a lot of drivers have now acquired a bike to help with fitness. We hope that this will have a positive influence on our workforce. We have created a gym which drivers and staff are free to use before and after work. We have a dedicated team of transport managers that monitors the fuel consumption, Co2 levels and incidents within of our fleet. We believe we will continue to improve our environmental impact.

We have positively promoted FORS by distributing Mark Luck Ltd Calendars, with the FORS logo to all our customers and suppliers. We have requested that our suppliers become FORS accredited. We actively promote FORS on all of our social media platforms. The Mark Luck Website also promotes the accreditation. Rachel Archbutt has become a FORS practitioner by completing all the courses.

Going for Gold shows that as a company we are proactive in considering safety on and off the road. We will continue to support and promote the FORS scheme whenever possible. By achieving FORS Gold accreditation it will demonstrate to our existing and future clients the successful progress and efficiency of Mark Luck Ltd and the continued commitment to FORS standard and road safety.

Mark Luck Ltd- Facebook. Mark Luck Ltd – Twitter. Mark Luck Ltd – Instagram. Mark Luck Ltd- Yell.com and Google.

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