TDR Transport Services are a specialist Heavy Haulage Company based in Dudley, in the heart of the West Midlands. We provide abnormal load solutions for all requirements, both in the UK and Europe.

My name is Lee Ashmore and I am the Fleet and Compliance Manager with a target to achieve positive results in ensuring our business is to be at the spearhead of our Industry.

TDR Transport services has always maintained the highest standards in monitoring fuel use by both vehicles and drivers. Since first joining FORS in 2016 the yearly independent analysis of our policies and procedures have encouraged us to expand this further and allowed us to monitor CO2, NOx and particulate matter emissions. Since joining FORS, we have taken the attitude of constantly challenging ourselves into the realm of driver training within road safety. Since road safety training has been at the forefront of training for our drivers; accidents and incidents have reduced and transport related fines have also shown a decline. We constantly train our drivers to recognised FORS standards.

The reason for our initial application to achieve FORS recognition was the knowledge that our business required with the standards and targets to enable us to stay at the forefront of the Industry. The benefits of ‘best practice’ and extra training in line with the FORS Bronze standard has enabled us to promote our business with the widely recognised FORS model. Many of our customers now specify suppliers must be FORs accredited.

Before we had started our initial FORS Bronze audit, we were confident that we had all the procedures already in place. However, with research into ways in improving our business it became apparent that we needed to implement further developments into our systems in order to be fully compliant. Once we gained our bronze accreditation, we decided to take this as our first step in progressing further in our goal to reach higher standards. Throughout the process the whole business was encouraged to keep pushing ourselves to achieve further FORS standards and eventually go for gold!

Since starting our journey with FORS, we have evolved from bronze, silver and gold audits as we were provided with professional guidance which enabled us to achieve higher accreditations.

Upon our journey from achieving our bronze accreditation we are proud to promote this prestigious and recognised Industry standard. Our fleet was immediately adorned with the FORS Logo and we made a conscious effort to ensure all our customers and partners were aware of this achievement.

Our Driver CPC Training incorporated the SUD (Safe Urban Driving) module which was popular with our drivers as this was a different approach from the usual requirements to gain the CPC qualification, we endeavour to repeat this module annually as it gained much positive feedback. The E-Learning modules have proved an invaluable learning tool which enables our drivers to interact more together as well as gaining further knowledge. KPI monitoring is now becoming more and more of a requirement with our Industry and since becoming Bronze it enables us to focus more proactively on these measures. Regular Licence checks are also performed by our designated provider at specified intervals.

”The prestige and improvements to our Business since becoming FORS Bronze accredited are plain for all our staff and customers to see, morale has improved, and we are all keen and ready to keep improving our image and standing in our Industry” – Richard Rollinson, Our Operations Director.

One of the key benefits I have obtained from being a FORS member is the improvement in Best Practice standards and the constant desire to always enable me to do better and push for more safety and quality procedures through thorough training and available FORS workshops. TDR Transport have benefitted from an improving customer base and more enquiries due to our FORS status. All our drivers now communicate and interact more with each other due to being together during E-Learning and other activities surrounding our improved training modules”.

”The difference I have noticed in our drivers is incredible, everyone is upbeat and it is far easier to communicate positively with them as they know we are all trying to improve the quality of our Industry with FORS” – Dan Harris, Our Planning Manager.

Once we achieved FORS Bronze, we were motivated to go ‘above and beyond’ and progress to FORS Silver. With all the benefits achieved with Bronze, it felt right for us to progress further. The application process was very straight forward and that led me to explore further in detail at how we implement and record all our operations. Receiving the FORS Silver status proved that we are doing our upmost to keep improving and becoming more efficient both as a company and for the greater environment.

Progression to FORS Gold has been a smooth development for our company and has further expressed our commitment to the FORS Standards. At TDR Transport Services Ltd, we wanted to go for the best accreditation possible and knew going for gold was the best decision. Having the FORS Gold accreditation has raised our company profile and enabled us to stand out to both existing and new customers.

Our performance improvements are shown in the table below:

	MPG	Incidents per 100,000 Kms	CO2	NOx	PM10	Number of PCNs	Proportion of fleet that uses alternative fuels
2019	6.98	0.97	1951.59	4066.42	74.20	32	0%
2020	7.04	0.79	1717.11	3577.86	65.29	21	0%
Percentage improvement	0.86%	21.46%	12.78%	12.78%	12.78%	41.50%	0%

TDR Transport also perform an annual health review as part of our Insurance requirement process, drivers have acknowledged the TDR handbook which prohibits the driving of Company vehicles whilst impaired or on any prescription drugs without seeking Management advice. We complete return to work documents for any employee who has been away from work due to illness.

Driver recruitment has proven to be difficult for us at TDR Transport. Due to the specialised nature of our business, we must ensure new recruits are fully trained in our operations. They can be very different from General Haulage Operations. The process we have adopted for encouraging new drivers into the Industry is shown below:

• Employ, and train, a Cat B Licence holder to perform STGO Escort duties with ongoing training
• Upgrade Escort driver to Cat C Licence Category, gaining experience in Rigid Vehicles
• Upgrade Cat C Licence Category to Cat CE and progressing through productive training to specialised Haulage operations

Our ongoing project is to reduce noise impact from our Operation, we are sourcing the correct equipment to be placed strategically within our yard to identify any potential problem areas. We are located in an Industrial area on a specific plot away from other businesses with no housing in the vicinity. Loading and unloading is mainly conducted on customers’ premises which tend to be new build developments with no residents. All vehicles are maintained by main dealers at regular legally required intervals. Our fleet are washed on site in a designated environmentally friendly area to maintain the image of our Company.

Our Policy for future Fleet replacement includes the Noise impact and improved economy of vehicles. The majority of our current fleet are already at Euro VI standard. Due to the nature of the loads, we carry, this is only performed after all other possible options are proven to not be viable.

For TDR transport services to continue striving for the FORS Gold accreditation, shows all the hard work, effort put in and how we continually strive for a more environmentally friendly operation. With professionally trained drivers, staff and a constant desire to improve all aspects of our Industry and for our customers, we will continue upholding our FORS Gold standards.

To conclude, at TDR Transport Services, becoming FORS Gold accredited once again would mean that we are successfully carrying out our operations at the highest of our standards. The benefits attained from FORS have contributed to our company’s success. We look forward to remaining a FORS gold accredited company and proudly displaying the FORS Gold badge!

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