Smith Brothers are FORS Gold accredited

Smith Brothers are delighted to have been granted FORS Gold Accreditation as a multi-site operator, demonstrating our exemplary levels of best practice in our Transport’s safety, efficiency and environmental protection.

SBS have been proud members of the Fleet Operations Recognition Scheme (FORS) since 2013, with upgraded Silver status being obtained in 2015 and aspirations to achieve the holy grail of Gold status thereafter.

Our FORS Gold accreditation is valid across all SBS branches, including any future branch openings. We are accredited as a Multi-Site Operating Centre Accreditation (MOCA) as opposed to many our competitors whose FORS accreditation is limited to single operating centres within their respective businesses.

Transport Operations Manager Andrew Teer said, ‘This accreditation is testament to the hard work and dedication of staff throughout the business over the course of the last 18 months. This has presented a few challenges with branches located throughout the UK from Dundee down to Southampton, and everything in between. But all staff throughout the branch network have been pulling in the same direction to aid the business transition to Gold status, and we could not have achieved this without the assistance of our wonderful colleagues across the business’.

FORS helps businesses improve operator safety, fuel efficiency and vehicle emissions. It also helps embed economical operations throughout. Put simply – FORS is a voluntary accreditation scheme that is an effective way to demonstrate to clients we are a high-performing operator who seeks to instil industry-leading best practice.

Steve Smith, SBS Managing Director, said “This is a major achievement, with both our transport and branch teams working diligently behind the scenes for the past couple of years to make this possible. Ultimately ensuring that all relevant processes are engrained across the branch network, the benchmarking data has been collected, and various training elements have been completed by all transport-related staff across the business.

What’s next? Being a FORS member effectively demonstrates that we keep to our environmental commitments and exceed industry standards. Therefore, whilst we maintain our Gold accreditation, we will continue to seek ways to improve sustainability even further as we aim to reach net zero emissions by 2050, exploring options such as the following:

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

Our Transport department has already placed us heads and shoulders above the rest by overseeing a smooth transition from diesel/petrol to all-electric and hybrid cars. To date, the business possesses 80+ electric and 50+ hybrid vehicles, with more on order.

Lookout for the FORS Gold logo next time you see a Smith Brothers vehicle on the road!