Section 1 – Introduction

Day Aggregates is one of the largest independent aggregate marketing companies in the UK. Since the 1960’s Day Aggregates has been providing services to the construction, demolition and water treatment industries throughout the United Kingdom. In 2013 we expanded the aggregates bagging business with the acquisition of Aggregate Supplies. This acquisition made us one of the leading suppliers of bagged aggregates in the UK.

Ian McGregor our Training and Compliance Manager for Transport and Logistics explains how FORS has positively reinforced and contributed to best practice within Day Aggregates.

Day Aggregates activities reflect environmental concerns over the use of landfill sites and quarries and the associated transport. To that end, major investments have been made in state of the art recycling plants, railheads and wharves. This has enabled us to improve fuel efficiency, reduce road congestion and the impact it has on the environment.

Section 2 – How did you hear about FORS, what prompted the company to join and how long have you been a member? –

Day Aggregates became involved with FORS in the early days of the scheme, we have been a member since 2009. We were immediately impressed with the way it encouraged sustainable best practice for freight operators and promoted safe working practices, legal compliance and the safety of vulnerable road users. Nothing like FORS had existed before and we embraced the principles it established.

Section 3 – What was your experience of the initial FORS Bronze audit?

Although we were happy that many of our management procedures and systems were already aligned to the FORS philosophy, we welcomed the opportunity to be assessed under the scheme and attained Bronze. The assessment confirmed we were already performing well, however there was no room for complacency. As a direct result of our Bronze assessment and with a view towards progression within the scheme, we established regular eyesight checks and revised many of our procedures.

Section 4 – What was your main reason(s) for you progressing (either from Bronze to Silver and then Silver to Gold or straight from Bronze to Gold)?

We have always set very high standards for ourselves and after attaining Bronze the decision was taken to progress towards Silver and ultimately Gold. This would help us improve safety, reduce our environmental impact and give us an advantage when tendering for contracts.

Section 5 – Explain how you have made use of the benefits FORS provides? Quantify savings where possible

The benefits of FORS accreditation are clear. It has helped us to identify areas where we can improve and develop our objectives. Day Aggregates continues to take advantage of the reduced rates offered to FORS accredited companies. We use AdvancedCheck to ensure all our drivers are correctly licensed, entitled and insured to drive. We have also made use of Road Hawk and Brigade solutions to reduce the risk of collisions by minimising vehicle blind-spots.

One of the key benefits of FORS is the driver training and protecting vulnerable road users. With more people encouraged to cycle it is crucial that we train our drivers to be aware of the risks and dangers of sharing the road. We have taken advantage of the Safe Urban Driving course and e-learning modules with all our drivers, as we feel that protection of vulnerable road users is a major priority within the industry.

Version 5 of the standard has seen the induction of LoCITY, which has helped our drivers focus on minimising the environmental impact of trucks and reducing emissions through the use of pre-journey planning and vehicle checks and fuel-efficient driving.

Section 6 – What improvements have you made?

	MPG	Incidents per 100,000 Kms	CO2	NOx	PM10	Number of PCNs	Proportion of fleet that uses alternative fuels
Jan-Dec 2018	6.77	0.46	9823.6728	16640.5595	249.0460	47	0%
Jan-Dec 2019	6.92	0.49	10285.0095	10616.1994	186.9030	39	0%
Jan-Dec 2020	6.55	0.29	10107.3568	16552.7393	247.7317	37	0%
Percentage improvement on 2018	3.24%	36.95%	2.88%	0.52%	0.52%	21.2%	0%

Our Group Risk Manager is responsible for investigating and processing each road traffic incident and insurance claim. This is done in collaboration with the with insurance broker Verlingue. Outcomes are fed back to the Fleet Management Team, so improvements can be introduced to prevent incidents and PCN’s wherever possible.

We have been working to educate drivers on the importance of being respectful and courteous whilst loading and unloading vehicles. We have also seen a reduction in the amount of PCN’s year on year.

To help reduce CO2 emissions we actively seek ways to transport material by rail or water. This results in significantly lowering carbon emissions (per tonne of aggregate) than transporting by road.

We actively seek ways to reduce noise pollution. Our Group Head of Health, Safety and Environment carries out a rolling program on noise assessment within our yards.

Day Aggregates has introduced a number of ways to improve driver health and fitness, these include the Cycle to Work scheme, annual eye tests and regular medical reviews. We also provide an Employee Assistance Programme and have 8 Mental Health First aiders within the Company.

Over the past 12 months the company have rolled out the use of iPads to all HGV drivers which allows them to complete their pre-use checks and submit defect notes in real time.

7 – What are your plans for the future?

Now we have our drivers equipped with tablets we plan to introduce further applications onto the devices including LMS, Office 365, Access to Company Intranet and Electronic Delivery Notes.

During 2021 we will attain ISO39001 the internationally recognised Road Safety Standard.

Day Aggregates operates vehicle replacement programme keep our vehicle current taking advantage of the latest innovated technologies, committing to safety and efficiency.

Section 8 – What evidence do you have of positively promoting FORS at requirement G7?

At Day Aggregates we are involved in education within school, colleges and local community events. The program was put together by the Company which incorporates parts of the Exchanging Places Program and we promote FORS with the program.

Our entire truck fleet is Direct Vision Standards ready ahead of the March 2021 start date.

Section 9 –What FORS Gold accreditation means for your organisation/to you?

FORS is extremely important to improving the image of our industry and helping to reduce our impact on the wider community. We are focussed on finding more efficient ways of running our operation and gold accreditation recognises these ongoing efforts. We continue to encourage our contractors to participate in the FORS scheme, many of which are realising the benefits for themselves.

Section 10 – (Optional) Please provide your social media contact details so we can follow your organisation

Twitter – @DayAggregates, Instagram – @DayAggregates , Facebook – Day Aggregates

Section 11 – FORS members’ feedback questionnaire

Questionnaire completed 09/02/2021

Please could you take the time to complete a short questionnaire and provide feedback about FORS. Please note all answers you provide will be strictly confidential and will only be used by FORS to help us to improve the scheme. To access the survey, please click the link here: https://www.snapsurveys.com/wh/s.asp?k=153908006313

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