"Iron Mountain is a vast organisation and our core business is information protection and storage," says Rory, explaining that Iron Mountain employs 20,000 people worldwide, including 3,000 in the UK. "We provide records management, information destruction, data protection and document management solutions, and we store and manage digital data, too."
Rory Morgan
National Logistics Manager
"I'm responsible for the overall quality of our fleet in the UK," Rory continues. "The biggest challenge I face is how best to use the resources at my disposal. Consolidating deliveries and re-routing drivers have helped us become more efficient, and they also mean we're not simply adding to congestion in London. I also expect to see more out-of hours deliveries in future."
"We regularly go to our customers for feedback and one of the most common queries we get back is around the things we're doing to reduce our carbon footprint," says Rory. "So, as well as increasing our efficiency with things like consolidation, we're also looking very closely at the possibilities of using electric vehicles in our fleet."
How the issues are being tackled
Rory has found that recruiting and retaining drivers is a genuine problem in London and points to a new project Iron Mountain is implementing to improve the situation. "On top of the more traditional on-the-road training, we now offer our drivers tailored training out of the vehicle. As well as benefiting our existing drivers, we hope our driver reward project will boost our reputation as a good employer. At the end of the day, we want to work as partners with our drivers. Personal development and training are important and we treat our drivers as assets, rather than just numbers," he says.
"Consolidating deliveries and re-routing have helped us become more efficient and I expect to see more out-of hours deliveries in future."
"FORS accreditation is part of a package of improvements we're putting in place to develop a culture of best practice across my particular part of the organisation," Rory adds. "Our objective is to have a pool of drivers that could be seconded anywhere from Lands End to John O'Groats, and who would still deliver the same high-quality service."
"One of my colleagues went to the FORS PCN seminar, which provided us with a few new ideas that we're already implementing. The Commercial Vehicle Education Unit also helped us with our driver speeding fine process. Although the changes have been small, they've been really valuable.
Ultimately, as far as we're concerned, FORS accreditation is about access to new ideas that can help improve our service further," Rory concludes. "We feel that we're certainly on the right track, but it would be naive to suggest that we're getting everything right. There's always room for improvement."