Survey Road safety

Please rate your familiarity with the following fl eet safety accreditation initiatives

Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) Transport for London

Construction Logistics and Cycle Safety (CLOCS) Standard

HSE Driving at Work Standard 2014

RHA Standard

■ Non-existent ■ Some understanding ■ Working knowledge

considerably” in recent years, while 36% said it had increased “slightly”; only 25% said their awareness had stayed about the same. The fact that two-thirds are on an upward curve in their personal awareness was welcomed as “encouraging” by CLOCS spokesman Mike Eames. But high levels of general awareness

Van Excellence (Fleet Transport Association)

Fleet Safety Forum (Brake Charity)

0 10 20 30 40

The sample’s working knowledge of road safety certifi cation and standards schemes was fairly low, with the HSE’s Driving at Work standard apparently making the most impact. Even separating out responses from the group you might expect to have most knowledge — health and safety managers, operations managers, transport managers and haulage contractors — there was surprisingly low

50 60 70 80 90 100

levels of awareness. Just 38% claimed “some understanding” of FORS, reducing to 30% for CLOCS. Again, the HSE’s standard was the most embedded, with 42% having some understanding and 22% a working knowledge. But this group did have higher- than-average awareness of some of the generic, pan-industry schemes, such as the Fleet Transport Association’s Van Excellence.

If your company operates a fl eet directly, which of the following WRRR initiatives has it adopted, or is about to adopt?

200 ■ None 150

■ Fleet Safety Forum (Brake Charity)

■ Van Excellence (Fleet Transport Association)

100 50

■ RHA Compliance Audit/Standard ■ CLOCS Standard ■ FORS Gold ■ FORS Silver ■ FORS Bronze

0

Looking at attitudes to adopting or contractually mandating various road transport initiatives, with over 70% selecting “none” on both options of the question, the unavoidable conclusion is that these schemes are struggling to gain traction. However, when those who had adopted a scheme (a group of 135) were asked how much it had cost their business in total, there was a wide spread of responses. 50% said the fi nancial hit was less than £5,000, but 10% said it was £50,000-£100,000, and 15% said it was more than £100,000.

100 150 200

If your company is either a client/developer or a Tier 1 contractor, which of the following initiatives has it mandated for its supply chain?

have not translated into direct knowledge of road safety campaigns. Asked to rate their familiarity with a range of road safety standards, the FORS and CLOCS schemes seem to have made surprisingly little impression: just 25% and 30% respectively claimed “some understanding”, and only 10% and 7% said they had a “working knowledge”. Meanwhile, 65% and 62% respectively claimed no knowledge of FORS/CLOCS, although this fell to 42% and 53% respectively for London respondents. Interestingly, the HSE’s Driving at work: Managing work-related road safety scored far better: 44% said they had some understanding of it, and 14% claimed a “working knowledge”. The 10-page document, which applies to all industries and anyone driving for work, guides employers to “Plan, Do, Check, Act” to improve safety, including a focus on driver routes and realistic work schedules. A similar picture emerged for the

50 0

questions on adopting and mandating voluntary standards within companies or along the supply chain. Of the 146 respondents who operated a fl eet directly, 16 had signed up to the FORS bronze standard, 11 to FORS silver, seven to Gold, and just 12 had signed up to the newer CLOCS standard. But the overwhelming majority (71%) simply answered “none”. When clients/Tier 1 contractors, a 131-strong group, were asked which safety initiatives they had mandated for their supply chains, again 74% said “none”. At Mace, head of health and safety Andy Brown acknowledged that there is work to be done on promoting CLOCS. “The CLOCS Standard was developed by representatives from all of the construction stakeholders for the industry to adopt as a common set of standards. “While the development and

introduction of CLOCS is a big step in the right direction, it is clear that as an industry we can continue to improve our implementation of the CLOCS standard. The industry now needs to fully embrace these new standards and ensure that they

26 | SEPTEMBER 2014 | CONSTRUCTION MANAGER

>

>

Number of responses