VJ Technology – Believing in FORS Gold

VJ Technology – Believing in FORS Gold

VJ Technology is a market-leading distributor and manufacturer of technical fixings, tool, fasteners and associated products specifically for the UK construction and civil engineering industries.

The company formed as a business partnership in 1991 and, trading out its head office in Ashford, Kent, has grown to be a strategic partner on many major construction projects such as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Heathrow T5, London 2012 and most recently Hinkley Point.

With our extensive technical product knowledge and experience within the construction industry, everything we do at VJ Technology is measured by the benefit we can bring to our customers.

VJ Technology has a highly experienced Technical team which works closely with a purpose-built, in-house UKAS Accredited Test Laboratory which is used to assess the performance of virtually any fixing, power tool or consumable in order to provide added benefit and value to our customers.

VJ Technology was originally introduced to the FORS scheme by several main contractors we were working closely with on the London 2012 Olympics and Crossrail projects and we very quickly realised that the FORS requirements were perfectly aligned with the company’s own high standards of compliance, safety, and environmental impact. Being a company that always strives for excellence, achieving the Gold accreditation was our aim from the very beginning.

We achieved our Bronze and Silver accreditations on our first attempts in 2012 & 2013 however the Silver was achieved whilst the company was owned by SIG and so, when VJ Technology was sold to investors early 2018, we achieved the Silver accreditation for ourselves. We were awarded our first Gold accreditation in 2018

By being aligned with FORS, we have experienced the provision of invaluable training, tools and advice throughout our partnership which in turn has been instrumental in improving our internal policies and procedures and has helped us to better analyse and utilise our data to the betterment of the company.

Our aim was always to reach the FORS Gold accreditation. With Bronze we improved our driver and vehicle safety, which is the core focus for VJ Technology in addition to improving operating procedures through effective monitoring of fuel and tyre usage.

Progressing to Silver demonstrated to our customers our dedication to maintaining the highest possible standards for our fleet. Achieving it twice following the new investment in 2018 proved that our working practices are fully aligned to the requirements of the FORS standards.

The Gold accreditation strengthened our position as a market-leading company that operates at the highest level in terms of best practice and reassured our customers of our continued focus and dedication to exceeding best practice.

“Once we were awarded our first Gold accreditation in 2018 it really put our operational team ahead, other internal parts of the business not connected directly with FORS started to see the benefits of our achievement.” – Transport Manager Aarron Buss

“We now have the whole business actively involved in the FORS culture and it is promoted wherever necessary it has been a great tool for attracting new business and something we can pride ourselves on.” – Transport Manager Aarron Buss

Our focus in 2018 has been on driver safety we have improved our incident rate per 100000kms by 31.6 percent. This has been achieved by regular driver assessment, driver training, toolbox talks and internal safety campaigns. We made a number of improvements to our driver policies and renewed our driver handbooks following the completion of the Practioner workshops by our Transport Manager Aarron Buss.

We have improved our MPG, Carbon footprint, incidents and PCN’s by focusing on our drivers. New vehicles only offer a marginal improvement in these figures due to better fuel economy and safety features however these are irrelevant if the driver is not shown a better way of doing things. Tool box talks, classroom and online training plus internal safety campaigns alongside a better induction programme and continued structed development are the real reasons we can prove how we do things better.

 

MPG

Incidents per 100,000kms

Number of PCNs per 100,000kms

Jan-Dec 2017

25.39mpg 2.05 5.21

Jan-Dec 2018

29.33mpg 1.49

4.98

Percentage improvement 14.4% 31.63%

4.51%

  • Driver health & fitness is high on our agenda, drivers are encouraged and supported to live a healthy lifestyle behind the wheel, internal campaigns on drinking more water have been very successful. Our drivers know they can turn to us for help, and if there is a problem we are confident we will be aware of it due to annual driver health assessments with a registered medical practioner.
  • VJ Technology prides itself on staff retention, when looking for new candidates it is important to try and employee internally from parts of the business first, our Warehouse to Wheels programme has been extremely successful.

VJ Technology has exciting times ahead, with continued growth and expansion we will be striving to have our new Depot in Glasgow accredited to the FORS standards in the early part of 2019. In addition to this we will be releasing a whole new fleet onto the roads which will have improved safety equipment and better fuel economy

The FORS Gold accreditation is a clear indication to our customers and competitors alike that VJ Technology is all about excellence and best practice and maintaining our Gold Standard will facilitate our continued focus on improving our systems and procedures, with a clear focus always on safety and our environmental impact. Our customers expect excellence, an, with our FORS Gold accreditation, we can provide it.

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