Paramount Haulage Ltd – Retaining Gold

Paramount Haulage Ltd are based in New Cross and supply tipper lorries to demolition and construction companies throughout the Greater London area. Norbert Walsh, Director and Transport Manager, explains how Paramount Haulage Ltd have improved our road safety record by reducing the number of incidents by more that 50% during the last 12 months along with an increase in our drivers MPG performance since joining FORS.

We were introduced to FORS when we started working on some of the Crossrail projects located in the West End during 2008. We realised it would help us to achieve best practice and benefit us by vulnerable road user safety awareness, road safety, fuel efficiency and how to reduce our environmental impact.

Paramount Haulage Ltd passed their initial audit first time round, this showed us we were a competent transport business operating to high standards. This allowed us to show our commitment to road safety and the environment.

Once we were Bronze we really wanted to progress to the FORS Silver and the Gold accreditations so we focused heavily on driver CPC training and eLearning to make the most of the benefits on offer.

“Safety is of paramount importance to us at Paramount Haulage.” – Norbert Walsh

FORS has been invaluable as it made us look at our transport operation from a different perspective, each year we have seen improvements in our fuel usage by monitoring performance data and ongoing management if a drivers MPG report is not as good as the previous week.

“Road safety is our first priority then through driver management we reduce our effect on the environment.” – Robert McManus

We were delighted to earn the FORS Bronze accreditation but as a progressive company Bronze was not good enough for us, we wanted to demonstrate our commitment to road safety, the environment and to portray ourselves as industry leaders.

Quantify your improvements:

• Performance data – We have seen improvements in fuel economy as this increased by 0.66% and incidents reduced by 55.56%. However, we have seen an increase in the number of PCN’s issued during the last 12 months.

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

• Driver health and fitness review – When a driver is interviewed we ask that they read our health declaration and then they are asked to sign it confirming they are medically fit to driver HGV’s. We have a policy getting these declarations signed annually and regularly remind the drivers to inform us of any issues that may affect their entitlement to drive including fatigue, sleeplessness, anxiety, stress or any other issues. We also actively encourage our drivers to visit their healthcare facility should they suspect they have any issues that may affect driving.
• Strategy for recruiting drivers – We encouraged the nephew of one of our drivers to consider becoming a professional driver. He took us up on our offer and we paid for the costs associated with obtaining a category C licence and he is now a valued member of our workforce.
• Noise assessment – We have briefed all drivers on our noise assessment policy to ensure noise pollution is kept to a minimum, this includes unnecessary engine idling at the depot especially while performing a daily walk around check, at loading/unloading facilities and to avoid areas categorised as noise sensitive locations. Our depot is based next to a very busy railway station in South East London with trains stopping or passing through ever couple of minutes. The operating centre is only used for parking the vehicles overnight as loads are collected/delivered to third party premises such as construction sites or disposal/recycling facilities.
• Modal shift and alternative vehicles – We enquired with our vehicle supplier and they have informed us that they do not have vehicles powered by alternative means to suit our operation. We always try to minimise our vehicles from running empty, while servicing construction sites we try to combine deliveries with collections to the same location. If this is not possible, we plan work to make a delivery to one construction project and a collection from another in the nearby locality. We also encourage our drivers to use public transport or car share for their daily commute.

Like any other business, our prime objective is to expand the operation with continual improvement. Although we are only a small haulage company we have purchased an additional four brand new lorries over the last three years. When new vehicles that are powered by an alternative means become available for our type of operation we hope to be one of the first companies to purchase these in the London area.

To retain our Gold accreditation for another year demonstrates that we are a progressive company, actively committed to road safety, watching out for vulnerable road users, caring for the environment by reducing harmful emissions and we look forward to many more years as a FORS Gold accredited member.

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