VP PLC Going for Gold

VP PLC – founded in 1954, the Group now comprises operating divisions which include: UK Forks, Groundforce, Airpac Bukom Oilfield Services, Hire Station, Torrent Trackside, TPA and TR Group. These businesses offer the rental and sale of specialist products and associated services to a diverse range of end markets, including construction, civil engineering, rail, water, oil and gas, outdoor events and housebuilding.

“Our expertise is in asset management and we offer our services across the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe. Our oil and gas business operates internationally from a network of hubs across the globe”, says Darren Barton, Operations Manager.

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, Silver and Gold Accreditations first time. 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 carbon footprint and improving our MPG year on year. FORS has helped us improve our filing systems and procedures.

“FORS has helped us achieve compliance and safety”, Darren Barton – Operations Manager.

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.

“We have increased our MPG by 12.42% since our baseline year”, Darren Barton – Operations Manager.

We have managed to keep our accidents/incidents down to zero for the last 4 years in a row. And we also reduced our Parking fines and Charges by 100% compared to 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.

*No incidents for the past 4 years.

• 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 adopted a recruitment policy to try and help us recruit young drivers into the Transport industry.
• We have 5 Operators yards and they are all in a Industrial Estate or the countryside. We use these depots to load our lorries with non mechanic plant equipment. We use gas Fork lifts to load/unload all our vehicles. Servicing is done by main dealers at their premises and as we are a hire company we load at your depot go to a site, off load there and then come back to our depot. All my lorries have white noise reversing alarms fitted to them.
• We carry heavy non mechanical equipment to and from construction sites across the whole country. As we rely on our customers asking us to collect equipment from various construction sites across the whole country, we never know where we are going until they need us. Therefore we can’t afford to try and move anything via barge or train as we collect all the equipment from building sites and there is no other method than using a lorry and we then asked to deliver anywhere in the country. So, using a Lorry is the most cost effective way of moving our clients goods. We are replacing all our lorries with Euro 6 engines as and when they are due for renewal. 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 and keep trying to reduce all our Parking Fines and Charges until we get to zero and keep it there.

Maintaining 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.