H.Sivyer (Transport) Ltd – Going for Gold

Our waste management, recycling and logistics business dates back to 1872 when transportation of spoil was carried by horse and cart – we have come a long way since then. The company now operates in excess of 100 vehicles the Greater London area. In order to operate to the high standards we strive to achieve we rely heavily on our drivers and experienced management team, balancing operational needs and compliance with legislative demands.

Our Compliance Manager, Mario Hellawell, is an accredited FORS Practitioner and is supported in his daily duties by two members of staff, Louise Gallagher has had 16 years’ experience with the Freight Transport Association and Louise is also a FORS Practitioner and Mihai Ardeuan who is also an accredited FORS Practitioner too. Mario reports directly to Matthew Carter, the Sales and Logistics Director, who himself has over 20 years’ experience in the logistics and road transport industry, he holds a national CPC and is currently one of the company’s active Transport Managers.

Matthew and Mario, pictured here with one of our lorries, have been instrumental in establishing the FORS Standard throughout the business and ensuring the systems have been maintained over the past 4 years. We are proud of our achievements and our approach to embracing the underlying objective in increasing standards across the industry. 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 and knew we definitely wanted to show the industry how serious we are about compliance and we recently achieved the Earned Recognition with the DVSA and wanted to make sure we promote FORS across our supply chain by making example of being Gold ourselves. 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 accidents/ incidents and Parking fines and Charges. FORS has helped us improve our filing systems and procedures.

Mario Hellawell, Compliance Manager says,

‘FORS has helped us achieve compliance and safety.’

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.

Mario Hellawell says,

‘We have increased our MPG by 3.71% since our baseline year.’

We have managed to reduce our Parking fines and accidents/incidents down from our baseline year. 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 only use our Operating yard 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 waste soil and aggregates to construction sites across the whole country. As we rely on our customers asking us to deliver/ collect to/from various construction sites across the whole country, we never know where we are going until they need us. We will be moving our operators yard to Morden Wharf, Tunnel Avenue, Greenwich, SE10 0PA. By opening the new premises we are able to transport all our waste soil and aggregates by barges, which will reduce the amount of lorry trips we need to move our products across London. Our business involves the transportation of aggregates and building waste by road which is the nature of the industry we are in. However with a new contract in Barking involving the movement of cement by barge via the port at that location which is close to our operating centre due consideration is to be given to extending the use of water in transporting some of our products. We are also exploring ways that will provide some effective control over fuel use and emissions by adopting logistical arrangements that maximise the use of lighter vehicles where possible. These weight dependent methods where practical will also ensure the maximisation of loads. 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.

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.