WHITE HAULAGE LTD– MAINTAINING GOLD

White haulage ltd is a franchise haulier for tarmac based in Hayes, Middlesex, we have recently become ltd company after trading as a sole trader for 13 years previously. Danny white the owner driver of the company explains how White haulage ltd has improved driver training day to day operations & fuel economy through FORS.

We first heard about FORS through our work with tarmac some years ago, since then tarmac and a number of other companies request at least FORS bronze to carry out work on their behalf and even more now require gold as a minimum. When we researched it more we could see the benefits FORS would bring to the business such as driver training, fuel economy improvement & a more organised business all round.

We passed the bronze audit first time round and this encouraged us to keep all of our records up to date and organised and also keep up to date with the latest training courses and industry news.

After getting the bronze accreditation we made the most of the benefits on offer in particular the e learning facilities , I  also attended the lo city driving and safe urban driving FORS funded CPC courses.

‘FORS e-learning gives us an easy way to keep drivers up to date and show them what is expected of them.’ Danny white – owner

We found the safe urban driving course particularly useful and informative as you get to see the road from the cyclists point of view and understand the dangers they face, we have also seen an improvement in fuel economy and the lo city driving course and e-learning module were particularly useful in helping to achieve this. More recently the security and terrorism courses have provided very useful information.

‘Going into our 2^nd year as a gold operator our business is benefitting all round from being a part of FORS.’ Danny white – owner

Once we were bronze we decided to progress to silver and gold because we could see the benefits it would have on the business, not only in getting more work but with improving fuel economy, driver awareness and making us a more efficient operator all round. Now going into our 2^nd year as a gold operator we feel a lot more confident going into our fors audit as all our files are in place and our safe systems of work tried and tested.

We are proud to maintain our zero incidents and PCN record for the fourth consecutive year.

*Annual improvement in MPG and Incidents per 100,000 Kms

Although this shows a negative movement on the mpg, between 2015 & 2016 we noted a 2.4% increase in mpg. The negative figure is mainly down to a lot more urban driving & city based jobs in 2017. We are hopeful that a new euro 6 truck due very soon will show great improvement on our fuel economy.

The health and fitness of any drivers we use is taken seriously, any driver whether casual or regular is required to fill out a health declaration notifying us of any underlying issues, these are done every year, we also do eyesight tests every 6 months.

Due to the small size of the company we don’t have a specific recruitment policy, however when a new driver starts with us they are given a 2 week buddying program designed to ensure they are fully trained to carry out their role, we also fund any CPC training required to keep them up to date with all the latest courses and to encourage them to stay with us long term.

Drivers are aware of measures that can be taken to reduce noise especially when working at night and we have a noise risk assessment in place, which drivers read and sign to make sure they understand the implications things such as leaving the engine running can do to the local environment.

For the type of work we carry out there are currently no alternative vehicles available to us, due to the use of PTO systems, insulated bodies and high load capacity. We monitor industry news regularly to see the latest developments and I’m sure in the future alternative fuel vehicles will be available to our industry.

We aim to make continual improvements to the business and at the time of writing we are awaiting the delivery of a new euro 6 Scania to improve fuel economy & safety. This vehicle has an n3 chassis which gives a much lower entry point and better all-round view of the road. We are also continually reviewing safe working procedures, and driver training as ultimately this will help us become a better and more efficient company and hopefully allow us to expand in the future.

For White Haulage ltd maintaining our gold accreditation would mean we are continuing to achieve the best possible practice. The training courses and toolkits on offer from FORS ensure we can stay up to date with all the latest news and changes to the industry. Going forward we want to continue to reduce harmful emissions and the impact we as a company have on the environment.