Section 1 – Introduction
Selkent Fastenings Ltd is based in South East London, Sydenham and supplies to the construction industry with fixings, fastenings, hand & power tools, metalworking supplies, fire stop, hand & rail support, safety & site consumables, site equipment and concrete accessories.
I am Louella Boyt and I am the Administration Manager at Selkent Fastenings Ltd. Throughout the years Selkent Fastenings Ltd have achieved significant improvements through FORS by proactively seeking to reduce fuel use & CO2 emissions, lower NOx and particulate matter emissions and improve our road safety. This also includes bringing down the number of transport fines and charges.
Section 2 – How did you hear about FORS, what prompted the company to join and how long have you been a member?
Selkent Fastenings Ltd first came across FORS in 2014 and we successfully passed our Bronze & Silver level in September 2016. Since then its been a continual journey to go up a level and progress towards Gold in order to make our roads a safer and healthier place. We soon realised that FORS was going to help us to achieve the best practise and benefit us in more ways than one by educating our drivers properly as to Road Safety and risk, and all that comes with having the responsibility of a large vehicle.
Section 3 – What was your experience of the initial FORS Bronze audit?
Selkent Fastenings Ltd passed their initial audit the second time round as we were new to the programme and there were a couple of points we had to straighten up on. Our first application was in July 2016 and by September 2016 we were FORS compliant. This showed to us the in-depth necessity of making sure that we keep everyone safe. From this point we were encouraged to keep moving forward with FORS as continual changes and improvements came about and we put practises and measures in place to meet these standards such as Fuel monitoring, fines/charges monitoring etc.
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)?
Once we were accredited with FORS, we noticed that we were saving ourselves money and time. One reason was that we no longer had to arrange extra couriers to do our deliveries to FORS Silver sites as this was something we could now undertake. Therefore, we saved ourselves a substantial amount of money – sometimes up to £4,000.00 a month, and we saved time in having to arrange the couriers. As we have evolved from a family business to an established business by being FORS accredited it has helped our growth as customers have confidence in us as we were a legitimate business that was keen to be moving forward and going places.
“The company’s commitment to FORS for me is a very good thing as it ensures that all driving standards are monitored and I can drive safely to site knowing that all regulations are adhered to.” Neville Van Stittert (Senior Operations manager)
“Becoming a member of FORS has significantly raised the company profile, ensuring more opportunities for work, expansion and further employment, which has been a very positive experience.” Shaun Bushnell (Director)
Section 6 – What improvements have you made?
- The performance data that we have supplied for the last two years doesn’t show any improvement in the reduction of fuel usage on our van fleet. The business has grown over the last two years and the vehicle fleet has increased. This doesn’t support any real comparison. We are confident that with the additional Locity classroom training we will improve the driver’s behaviour and reduce fuel usage. Our incident rating has increased but we have had a significant change in drivers over the last year. We are confident that the drivers that have remained with the increased monitoring and development training we will see the incident level decrease.
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MPG |
Incidents per 100,000 Kms | CO2 | NOx | PM10 | Number of PCNs |
Proportion of fleet that uses alternative fuels |
| Year 1 | 33.6 | 2 | 46.6162 | 269.71 | 4.5481 | 11 | 0% |
| Year 2 | 28.94 | 4 | 67.6917 | 337.42 | 5.6899 | 19 | 0% |
| Percentage improvement | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Driver health and fitness is an important aspect of the working life of our drivers. We see driver health as an integral part of our drive towards peak performance and the ongoing monitoring of drivers has helped to identify conditions that can be addressed at the earliest opportunity. This supports the drivers in being pro-active towards their own health. We ask the drivers to sign a health and fitness to driver declaration every year and have a very clear policy for health and eyesight. We comply with the Bronze standard of checking eyesight every six months or after an incident.- Recruitment of drivers – We are a small business with everyone working together. We have a clear strategy for recruitment of new drivers. This includes a referral scheme, advertising on a recruitment website and our own. We advertise at the operating centre to reach out to drivers visiting the centre and passers-by. We are researching ways to encourage new drivers in to our industry with connections with local development company’s and colleges.
- Noise assessment – We have assessed the noise generated in the work place and have sent a memo to the drivers asking them to keep idling to a minimum and to think about their location for the reduction of noise when entering and exiting the vehicle.
- Modal shift and alternative vehicles – We have changed some of the fleet and have an all Euro VI fleet. This is part of our long term strategy to reduce pollution and will be developed further with our research into modal shift and alternative fuels.
Section 7 – What are your plans for the future?
A question every business is asked, and sometimes difficult to answer in the ever-changing conditions we live in at the moment. But we are always seeking to move forward and become more and more environmentally friendly, in looking at electric vehicles, and also not to neglect the important need for health and safety on the roads, and also of our drivers. We are looking at securing a larger warehouse which will increase safety as will give us more room to manoeuvre the vehicles in the yard. We will also be looking at making sure that all training is completed so that all drivers have a comprehensive view on the vital importance of being safe and also things like routing to reduce pollution, and careful driving to reduce fuel consumption etc.
Section 8 – What evidence do you have of positively promoting FORS at requirement G7?
Selkent Fastenings Ltd promotes FORS in many ways. Our emails have our FORS ID on the footer so that when we communicate with businesses, they can see that we are FORS accredited. Our vehicles have the FORS Silver identity logo. To further promote FORS we have communicated with our suppliers (G9). We are sponsoring a youth team as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility.
Section 9 –What FORS Gold accredition means for your organisation/to you?
FORS is massive plus point for Selkent Fastenings Ltd and without it our growth would have been seriously stunned. By securing FORS Gold it means that we are no longer tied to not being able to serve certain customers fully, as previously we haven’t always been able to deliver to their sites due to not being FORS Gold accredited.
From being FORS Gold accredited we have not only received extra business – new customers coming to us because their old supplier can no longer deliver to their sites, but also its increased our awareness in how important the roads and the safety of them and the drivers are. At Selkent Fastenings Ltd, our drivers are our ambassadors. They are the ones who actually see us; whilst our sales guys visit customers, the drivers are the face of Selkent Fastenings. At Selkent Fastenings we pride ourselves in our service to our customers, therefore being FORS Gold accredited means we can provide impeccable service to our customers without any restrictions.
Going forward, Selkent Fastenings does not want to be held up! Therefore, being unlimited really in terms of FORS accreditation means we should be able to serve every customer who comes our way flawlessly without being tied back because we aren’t accredited.
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