JWS News Bulletin Issue 58 -Spring Edition - April 2011

Contents

King James II

In an extremely close competition, Michael James won the Suckling Transport Driver of the Year Award for the second successive year.

Eleven employees had perfect 100% scores but the average 2010 score of 94.3 fell just short of the all-time best performance. The number of Safety Observation cards submitted by drivers to report near miss and potential incidents, was used for the first time as the tie-breaker.

Michael, who is based on the Company’s contract with Shell in Pembroke, collects the £300 first prize and sees his name recorded on the Winners Board at head office for the second time.

Joint runners up Roger Bailey, who is based at Hythe, and Plymouth-based Andy McDaid each collect £175.

The regional winners, who collect £125 each are Kevin Tuff (Scotland), Paul Hoskins (SW and Wales) and Tim Bowden. (SE & Midlands) who works on the Company’s contract with ConocoPhillips.

The Contract winners, who each collect £100 are Dave Shaw (ConocoPhillips), Tony Bennett (Shell), Gregor McLeod (TankShare) and Mick O’Shea (Petroplus).

The Directors also agreed to award a special prize of £100 to Hythe-based Andrew Griffiths who, despite recording a perfect 100% score for the third successive year, finished outside the prizes by failing to submit an acceptable safety observation card.

Other employees on 100% were Stephen Milligan and Gordon Rennie, John Martin and Carwyn Williams, who lost out on the prize money due to the Safety Observation tiebreaker.

For the fist time this year, the Company has decided to make an award to the best team performance in the Driver of the Year competition, with a prize of £250 towards their chosen charity.

See Team of the Quarter for details of the first winners.

Safety Team are Local Heroes

Suckling Transport collected their first local award recently when they won the ‘Safety in the Workplace’ award at the Thurrock Business Awards 2011.

Safety Manager Perry Southgate and his assistant Sarah Andrews picked up the award which is sponsored by Coryton Energy.

The prize recognised the work carried out by staff in the Focus Groups set up to improve the Company’s health and safety performance.

“Last year we won awards in both the transport and energy industry sectors. But it is very special to be recognised by the community that we work in,” said Managing Director, Peter Larner.

Driver CPC on targets

The trade press continues to report that companies are failing to provide sufficient Driver CPC training to meet the 5-year requirement.

Concerns have been expressed that some employers are leaving the provision of training too late, which could see a substantial increase in requirements towards the end of the first 5-year period in 2014.

Suckling Transport is monitoring the delivery of Driver CPC training against the plan and we are pleased to report that we are actually ahead of schedule.

NVQ and SVQ Training for Suckling drivers

Suckling Transport hopes to provide all drivers with either a NVQ or SVQ qualification in ‘Driving Goods Vehicles’. The qualification will be provided through Orion Training who have already began the programme in Scotland.

The programme does not, in any way, conflict with the Company’s Smith System training in defensive driving. Any corrective action required following the NVQ / SVQ assessments will be provided by the Suckling Transport Driver Instructor Team.

Accident severity reduced

Suckling Transport’s insurance claims record has fallen by 50% in the last two years. The data, provided by insurers OAMPs, is used as a metric to measure road safety severity.

The Company’s 3-year rolling claims record improved from £157,493 to £99,107 last year and is projected to fall to £79,120 in the current financial year.

“This demonstrates that safety pays”, said Managing Director Peter Larner. “Thank you to all our employees for their efforts on our behalf, especially for their exceptional performance in the snow during November and December.

Focus Groups Success

Twenty four of the 29 Company Focus Groups were either fully or partially successful in 2010. The objective of the Groups, which were formed in 2009, is to beat the Company’s best every performance in 29 areas of the business.

The focus groups operate in areas affecting safety, service, the environment and cost. Staff members serve on several different Focus Groups, giving them the opportunity to provide a fresh view and enabling them to learn something about parts of the business outside their normal remit.

Six staff members served on all winning teams in 2010. Congratulations to Nikki Pacey, Dave Lane, Sue Nicholas, Kathy King, Jackie Knight and Angela Stevens.

The members of each team change every year. The 2011 Focus Group face a difficult challenge to beat the 2010 performance but many have made a successful start to the campaign.

11 New MANs for the Suckling Fleet

Fleet Engineer Dan Bauckham has ordered 11 new MAN TGS 440 tractor units for delivery in the next two months.

This make and model of vehicle has been found to be the most suitable for the application, following a review of full-life costs.

The vehicles are fitted with the latest MAN Euro 5 GBR D2676 12.4 litre common rail engine. They also have the TipMatic gearbox with Profi drive, EBS, anti-lock braking, anti-spin regulator and are fitted with Brakematic.

The vehicles will go into service at Grangmouth, Clydebank, Avonmouth and Coryton and will be used in the TankShare fleet and on the Company’s contracts with Shell and ConocoPhillips.

Team of the Quarter

The Team of the Quarter this time round is the ConocoPhillips contract drivers at West London who achieved the highest group score in the 2010 Driver of the Year Award competition.

They become the first ever winner of the Group Driver of the Year award and a cheque for £250 goes to the chosen charity for their 1mKm Challenge—Cancer Research. This will take the total money raised for their charity to £1,510. Well done.

Despite none of them achieving the perfect score required to win this year’s individual award , the team recorded a fantastic average score of 99.87%

The full league table for 2010 is:

ConocoPhillips West London (99.87%)
Shell Aberdeen (99.74%)
Shell Avonmouth (98.69%)
ConocoPhillips Westerleigh (97.98%)
Shell Cardiff (96.71%)
Shell Pembroke (96.33%)
Shell Plymouth (96.10%)
Shell Hythe (96.84%)
ConocoPhillips Coryton (94.68%)
Petroplus Westerleigh (94.45%)
TankShare (92.29%)
Shell Grangemouth & Clydebank (92.06%)

Top Service Provider

Suckling Transport is to introduce its Fleet Service Provider of the Year Award in 2011.

The Company employs 20 service agents in the UK, who provide vehicle and trailer inspections and maintenance services. These consist mainly of DAF and MAN franchise dealers but also includes some independents.

The winner will need to produce an excellent first time pass rate at the annual test and record high scores in the annual audit by our Fleet Engineer. The number of non-conformances will also be measured and a driver survey will be conducted to seek their views.

My Top Ten

Mick Smith, General Manager took the ‘My Top Ten’ interview this time round.

Record
True Love Ways—Buddy Holly

TV Programme
Only Fools and Horses – I can watch them over and over again!

Book
Lost in a Hurricane – Peter Larner – I have only just started it, my first book in years!

Film
The Glenn Miller Story – I just love old classic movies!

TV Personality
Martin Clunes – I enjoy everything he is in!

Holiday Resort
Majorca – a lovely island

Restaurant
The Whitmore Arms, Orsett – Lovely food

Suckling Employee
Too many to mention, just a great bunch to work with!

Sports Person
Jimmy Greaves –I have never seen anyone to compare with him at his best.

Motto, slogan or quote
Audere – Est- Facere – “To dare is to do” The motto of Tottenham Hotspur

If you want to take part in the ‘My Top Ten’ interview please contact Sue Nicholas.

Other News...

Toolbox Talks

The dates for Q2: 2011 Driver Safety Talks are shown below.

SHELL
Hythe 3/4 May
Cardiff 9&12 May
Grangemouth 10/11 May
Pembroke 10/11 May
Avonmouth 23&26 May
Aberdeen 24/25 May
Plymouth 24/25 May
Clydebank 14/15 June

CONOCOPHILLIPS
Coryton 19 April
West London 27 April
Westerleigh 4 May

PETROPLUS
Westerleigh 4 May

Topics for this quarter include Safety Statistics and previous incidents.

Staff Changes

Congratulations to Gareth Cox, who was promoted to the position of Transport Manager on 1st April 2011. Gareth will manage the Company’s contract with ConocoPhillips.

Congratulations also goes to Kathy King who was recently promoted to the position of Fleet Maintenance Controller, reporting to Fleet Engineer Dan Bauckham. Kathy has also recently been elected as a Licentiate Member of the Institute of the Motor Industry.

Fuel Efficiency

Employees were recently sent a questionnaire on fuel efficiency by our Fuel Champion Jess Clewley. Thank you to all the drivers who returned a completed questionnaire. Four drivers scored 100% (22 out of 22).

Well done Michael James, Mandy Beer, Scott Douglas and Bruce Dalgleish who each receive a prize. Finally, thanks to all the drivers who provided additional comments to the questionnaire.

Decade of Action
Suckling Transport will be supporting the Decade of Action on road safety and will be attending the launch at Westminster on 11th May 2011.

1mKm Challenge
As the News Bulletin went to print, two teams were closing in on the 1mKm Challenge. The England team was on course to become the first team to win the challenge twice, and they hoped to reach the one million kilometre mark at the beginning of April.

The Hythe terminal team was expected to reach one million kilometres of safe driving later in April 2011, to become only the second Operating Centre winners of the Competition.

After just one winner in 2009 (Scotland), last year saw three winners - England, Wales and Avonmouth terminal. Two winners so early in 2011 would give the competition a great boost.

So far £6,960 has been raised for the charities supported by the 1mKm Challenge teams.

Top 7 answers on the board

The Department of Transport recently surveyed LGV drivers in the UK to determine what actions they took to improve safety and reduce accidents.

Drivers referred to 23 different actions they take to reduce crashes. The top 7 answers were:

1. – Ensure the vehicle is roadworthy.
2. – Do not become distracted.
3. – Travel at the appropriate speed
4. – Check before making a manoeuvre.
5. – Keep a safe distance
6. – Take account of restricted views, particularly when reversing.
7. – Anticipate the actions of other road users.

CHAS benefits from generous Scots

The Scottish teams at Grangemouth and Clydebank were so disappointed with their 1mKm Challenge performance in 2010 that they decided to raise some money for their chosen charities. A cheque for £200 was sent to CHAS and another for £35.34 went to MacMillan Cancer Research.

 

News Bulletin

The next edition of the News Bulletin will be 29th June 2011.

Please let Sue Nicholas have any news items by early June 2011.

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