MJ & VA BEDFORD – Going for Gold

MJ & VA Bedford is the premier choice for supplying Concrete to both Commercial and Residential Developments in the Cambridge area and the South East of England. Based in Huntingdon, MJ & VA Bedford are experienced in providing premium quality, Ready-Mixed Concrete for Commercial and Residential developments. Our fleet allows us to supply Concrete, quickly, reliably and competitively, backed by any technical advice required from our experienced friendly team, who are happy to pay you a visit. Michael Bedford – Partner says FORS has definitely brought them forward in the industry and he fully promotes FORS to every company he comes across.

We came across FORS when tendering for work with Mick George Ltd and Breedon Southern Ltd. 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 and Silver Accreditation 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. FORS has helped us improve our filing systems and procedures’

‘FORS has helped us achieve compliance and safety’ – Michael Bedford Partner

All our drivers have completed their Safe Urban Driving course which was funded by the Transport for London. 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 reduced our Parking fines and Charges by 100% since our baseline year’ – Michael Bedford Partner

• We have managed to keep our accidents/incidents down to zero for the last 2 years in a row. 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 or PCN’s for the past 12 months.

• We get all my drivers to complete a comprehensive Medical Declaration on an annually basis even though the FORS Standard states once every 5 years. It’s also mentioned in the driver’s 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 recently teamed up with a recruitment Company to try and help us recruit young drivers into the Transport industry.
• We only use the Operating centres for parking our lorries. We don’t do any loading/ unloading on site and all our servicing is done by main dealers at their sites not ours. The only noise generated is when my lorries are idling so we can carry out our defect checks. All my lorries have white noise reversing alarms fitted to them.
• We transport concrete to and from construction sites across Cambridge and the South East of England. As we rely on our customers asking us to collect concrete and then delivery it to various construction sites across Cambridge and the South East of England, we never know where we are going until they need us. The main contractors we work for already move as much of their products by barge or train, we then transport it to their batching plants or straight to building sites. So using a Lorry is the most cost effective way of moving our clients concrete the final stages of their transportation as they have various construction sites always opening and closing acorss Cambridge and the South East of England. We are replacing all our lorries with Euro 6 engines as and when they are due. 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 our Parking fines and Charges to zero’

Gaining 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. We have also reduced the amount of Parking Fines and Charges we had on the previous year.

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