10 years of FORS Accreditation

Smith Brothers’ vehicle fleet is celebrating 10 years of being FORS accredited, having originally gaining bronze status in 2013, before progressing to silver status just two years later.

The Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS)

FORS is a voluntary accreditation scheme designed to help fleet operators improve fleet standards within their organization.

They offer a range of tools that help drivers, fleet managers, and organisations measure and improve performance across all aspects of their fleet operations and demonstrate best practice.

Read on to learn more about how Smith Brothers follow the FORS guidance to grow and improve of vehicle fleet.

Number of vehicles

Smith Brothers’ branch network has grown considerably since 2013 and in turn, so has the number of vehicles required to service our customers.

Upgrades to vehicle fleet

Our vehicles receive regular upgrades to keep up to date with FORS standards. Recent modifications include blind spot visual & audio aids, dashcams, cloud-based cameras and telematics surveillance systems. This is to protect the safety of other road users, our members of staff and our vehicles.

Environmental Commitment

Being a FORS member effectively demonstrates that we keep to our environmental commitments and exceed the industry standards. We constantly seek ways to improve sustainability even further, exploring options such as the below:

• Technology to optimise operations
• Renewable energy sources
• Retiming fleet activities to avoid peak congested periods
• Improving first time delivery performance
• Consolidating loads and activities

The transport department has paid particular focus to the environmental impact of our company cars. Within the last few years, we have transitioned away from all diesel/petrol cars to hybrid and fully electric, a significant reduction in our carbon emissions.

Daily vehicle checks

We carry out a walkaround of all vehicles daily, checking for any defects before they are used. This is to ensure that the vehicles operate on the road safely, within the law and with consideration to the environment.

Our drivers are encouraged to pay particular attention to certain areas of the vehicle including the tyres, lights, brakes, steering, obstructions to driver vision, etc. The drivers should also make daily inspections of the loading and lifting equipment on the vehicles. Any vehicle defects are promptly reported and repaired, ensuring all vehicles are road worthy.

Health & Safety

We maintain health and safety working conditions for our stakeholders and have policies and procedures in place to reduce the probability and severity of work-related accidents, injuries and cases of ill health.

Our policies are clearly displayed throughout our branches. They outline who is responsible for health & safety at each branch, describe how incidents will be managed and the procedures for any health & safety reporting.

The FORS Accreditation lays emphasis on operational and driving at work risks, which include:

• Seatbelts, speed, distraction & adverse weather
• In-vehicle communications
• Safe loading and load restraint
• Routing, including prescribed passenger routes, designated routes to and from construction sites and notified routes for abnormal indivisible loads (AIL)
• Passenger safety
• Operational security
• Counter terrorism
• Serviceability & road worthiness
• Tyre management
• Working time and driver’s hours
• Fuel emissions and air quality

Staff Training

As our staff are key to our success, the business ensures staff members are trained correctly to the highest standards.

New staff members working within our fleet operation partake in a rigorous induction designed to make them aware of our policies, procedures and an introduction to the FORS Accreditation. This is to ensure that the staff have the sufficient information to conduct their duties legally, safely and professionally while addressing any concerns and development needs. Our fleet operation staff members are also required at the induction to declare they have access to the driving standards policy and current highway code, and also that they have read & understood the documents.   

Throughout their employment, our fleet operation members have access to regular training. This includes correct vehicle loading and unloading, improving general road safety, reducing risk of collisions and identifying vulnerable road users.