Primagrange Ltd – Year 3 at Gold

Primagrange Limited are based in Greenwich, South East London and supply tipper lorries to the construction, civil engineering and demolition industries throughout London and the south east. Brendan Connolly, Director & Transport Manager, explains how Primagrange have remained a prominent figure in the construction & demolition industry through FORS by working to the high standards required for the Bronze, Silver and Gold accreditations.

We were introduced to FORS way back in 2008 and immediately signed up to the scheme as we were very concerned about the safety of vulnerable road users. We were also working on Crossrail projects ensuring that our vehicles were complaint with their standards and all our drivers attended the mandatory Crossrail Lorry Drivers Induction courses.

A lot of effort was put into the Bronze audit preparation and the introduction of complete new policy system helped us to get over the hurdle of our first Bronze audit.

Once we were Bronze we really made the most of the benefits on offer, in particular implementing a new driver training programme using the FORS eLearning and classroom based training modules to ensure that our organisation works efficiently and more importantly in a safe environment. Then we started working toward Silver and are now in our third year as Silver accredited.

“FORS continuously helps us to improve all aspects of our operations.” – Brendan Connolly Director & Transport Manager

Through FORS we have focused on all aspects of our business to improve our operation, from eLearning to the Safe Urban Driving modules improving driver awareness on the challenges of heavily congested road network to reducing our carbon footprint on the environment.

“Through FORS we have improved our KPI’s year on year.” – Chris Marshall Assistant Transport Manager

After gaining the Bronze accreditation we worked hard to achieve the Silver and Gold accreditations as we wanted to demonstrate to our customers and the general public of our commitments to road safety and to reducing our effect on the environment.

Performance data – Yet again this year we have seen improvements in fuel economy as this increased by 5.62%, the incident rate is down by 15.38% the amount of PCN’s received was down 22.22%. However, the 14 PCN’s were all successfully appealed whereas on previous years we were not so successful.

*Annual improvement in MPG and Incidents per 100,000 Kms

• All drivers must sign a health declaration every six-month confirming that they are medically fit to drive HGV’s. Any new driver attending an interview must sign this declaration prior to the interview commencing. The drivers are greeted by management at the start of each shift to ensure they are well and fit to drive before taking a vehicle on the public highway. Drivers are also encouraged to report any issues that may affect their driving abilities such as sleeplessness, fatigue, stress, anxiety, personal issue or other problems and if in any doubt seek help from their healthcare professional or doctor.
• We recruit on recommendations from our existing drivers and are aware of several social media website associated with HGV driver recruitment. We are also registered with a number of employment agencies with some who specialise in supplying ex-members of the armed services for jobs in civilian life. We currently employ an ex-member of the Royal Logistics Core.
• We are based in a large industrial complex with several haulage companies, crane hire companies and a London Bus depot that operates 24/7 so we are not in a noise sensitive area. Our depot is used only for parking with loading and unloading taking place at the construction sites that we service and the landfill sites or recycling centres. We have also carried out a noise assessment of our depot to ensure our operation is not a burden on the surrounding businesses.
• We only purchase new vehicles that are Euro 6 compliant and gradually disposing of the older vehicles. Our work pattern is organised to ensure that vehicles are always loaded and minimise empty running therefore eliminating unnecessary journeys. We have initiatives with our drivers to encourage them to use public transport and car share for their daily commute.

Our plans for the future have not changed much since last year, we intend to move forward with the times, purchase the latest vehicles that are Euro 6 compliant, continue to reduce our carbon footprint & environmental impact and use the latest technology.

Retaining out Gold accreditation is of the utmost importance to the Company as it demonstrates our endless commitment to the safety of vulnerable road users, other road users, promoting ourselves as an environmentally friendly organisation by reducing our carbon footprint and ultimately improving our business.