JWS News Bulletin Issue 53 - Winter Edition - January 2010

Contents

E.I., E.I. Oh! Suckling Scoop Award

Suckling Transport became the first transport company to receive the Energy Institute Safety Award in November.

The award was presented by Energy Institute President James Smith and TV personality Gabby Logan at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in London.

 

The award was in recognition of the Company’s Zero Incident Project, which was preferred to several upstream and downstream safety projects.

 

In the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport awards, Suckling Transport finished just behind CEVA Logistics in the Safety category.  But the EI awards closed out a magnificent 2009, after the Company had been commended by the safety organisation Brake who also presented Peter Larner with the Road Risk Manager award.

Photos © Jim Four/Energy Institute 2009

1mKm Challenge Winners

Scotland became the first winners of the Suckling Transport 1mKm Challenge in November.

Team captain, Gordon Johnstone, travelled to head office to collect the trophy and a cheque for £2,000 for the teams chosen charity, the MacMillan Cancer Support.  The donation was sponsored by Michelin, DAF and MAN and the project is funded by our insurers OAMPS.

 

The 1mKm Challenge is not a first-past-the-post competition.  All teams reaching one million kilometres of incident-free driving receive a trophy, individual prizes and a donation to the team’s chosen charity.  The successful Scotland team all received specially commissioned keyrings with the 1mKm logo on them.

 

Well done Scotland!

1mKm League table

After the success of the Scotland team (see this page), the England team are a few weeks away from reaching one million kilometres of accident-free driving.

 

The Welsh team has been incident-free since the competition began on 1st July 2009 and are progressing slowly, but steadily towards the prize.

 

International Teams:

                                                      KMS

England                        521,644

Wales                                   456,904

Scotland                         10,137

 

All of the Welsh and South West teams have been incident-free too.  Hythe and Avonmouth are favourites to become the first Operating centre winners, with Grangemouth closing fast.

 

Operating Centre Teams:

Hythe                                    476,027

Avonmouth                          419,178

Cardiff                          314,384

Plymouth                      209,589

Grangemouth (T/Share)   167,671

West London                159,288

Pembroke                           142,521

Coryton                                142,466

Westerleigh (Petroplus)     85,887

Management                        83,836

Westerleigh (Jet)                 54,493

Aberdeen                              10,685

Grangemouth (Shell)            8,219

Driver CPC Training starts

Training to meet the new Driver Certificate of Professional Competence began in September.  Drivers working on our contracts with ConocoPhillips, Petroplus Marketing and our TankShare fleet became the first to receive training.

 

Drivers receive one day’s training each year in order to meet the requirements of this new legislation.

 

Employees will be contacted at least one month before the one day course takes place.  Courses will be on a range of subjects, held as close to the place of work as possible.  Drivers need to complete the 5 days training by September 2014, when they will receive their qualification certificate.

 

 The Commercial Motor magazine recently reported that 39% of transport companies had provided no CPC training for their workforce since the new legislation was introduced in September.

 

The core module of the ADR training course counts as one day towards the CPC.

 

Those attending courses so far include:  Tony Cannings and Dave Shaw on our ConocoPhillips contract, Jim Hetherton, Michael Hearns, John Martin, Ian Watson, Dave Elliott, Nigel Harding, Scott Douglas, Bruce Dalgleish and Richard Burrows on our Shell contract and finally Ian Baird on our TankShare contract.

Safety Events ......

Shell Safety Day

 

The first Shell Annual Safety Day was held in November.  Keiron Ellsley, Andrew Eckton, Peter Larner, Perry Southgate, Sarah Andrews and Dave Elliott were among 42 attendees.

 

The two-day event looked at ways to improve safety.  There were keynote speeches from Shell managers and the Suckling Transport team gave a presentation on the opening day.

Brake Road Safety Week

 

Suckling Transport staff supported Road Safety Week in November.  Head Office staff raised £16.00 with a ‘wear something bright for work’ day.  And Sarah Andrews produced a special edition of the Safety in Numbers Bulletin which was sent to all employees.

 

Other charities that benefited from employees’ support in 2009 were:  MacMillan Cancer Trust £2,000; Brake £873.87, Wear it Pink £34.00 and Jean for Genes £36.00.

CoP Xtra Mile Award for Near Miss

 

As part of our plan to eliminate safety incidents, 2010 will see the introduction of a new incentive.

 

Drivers are always encouraged to submit potential incident reports and near misses.  From 2010, the PIR or near miss considered to be the best one on the ConocoPhillips contract in the quarter (starting with January to March) will be selected by the Safety Department, and the driver submitting it, will win an Xtra Mile award of dinner for two.

 

That PIR or near miss will then be used in a desk-top safety exercise as if it had been a real event.  The successful employee will be invited to take part.

 

The first winner will be announced in April 2010.  It could be you, so let us have your PIR or near miss reports.

Team of the Quarter

Our Team of the Quarter this issue is the Westerleigh crew.

 

Our Petroplus and ConocoPhillips drivers at the Westerleigh Terminal perform consistently well but have been excellent lately.  A 100% attendance record, only very minor tachograph infringements, no service failures and, most importantly, they have been accident-free since February 2008.

So well done to our smallest group of drivers, Jason Sheeley, Mick O’Shea, Craig Hill, Peter Marjoram and Richard Finke.

 

Scottish Fuels choose TankShare

Suckling Transport has secured a contract with Scottish Fuels to distribute their fuel from Grangemouth Terminal.

 

The winter contract began in December and will be reviewed at the end of March 2010.

 

The contract will provide work for 3 double shifted TankShare vehicles.

New Arrivals

Suckling Transport has placed orders for new trucks for its contracts with Shell and ConocoPhillips.

Two new MAN TGS vehicles, in Shell Livery, will go into service at Grangemouth this month, with another 4 arriving in April, and 3 new Jet liveried DAF 85CF FT vehicles joining the ConocoPhillips fleet at Coryton at the same time.

 

The later vehicles will be the first in the fleet to comply with Euro 5 emission requirements.  They represent the first stage of this year’s vehicle replacement programme.

Driver Instructor Week

Six employees attended a week-long Smith’s System training course at West Thurrock in October,  They now form our new Driver Instructor Team.  Dave Elliott, Dave Shaw, Nigel Harding, Bruce Dalgleish, Scott Douglas and Richard Burrows enjoyed the 5-day course.

 

Each evening there was a guest speaker at dinner and these included Stuart Morton (MAN), Peter Jackson (DAF), Konstantin Ranking (RTL), and Managing Director, Peter Larner.

 

The Smith’s system of defensive driver training will be introduced in 2010.

The 5-question Interview

Shaun Rees-Brown our Operations Manager took the 5-question interview this time round.

 

What did you do before joining Suckling’s?

I worked for Hoyer UK Limited, on the Tate & Lyle contract at Silvertown, London.

 

What was the worst job you ever had?

Setting up a market stall in Tilbury before and after school.  The money came in handy, but I was setting up come rain or shine.  I seem to remember it was more rain than shine

What was the last CD you brought?

The Black Eyed Peas – The End

 

What was your most memorable day?

My wedding day and the birth of my two daughters.  Recently Spurs win over Wigan 9-1 [Editors Note: paid to put this in as it doesn’t happen often].

 

Where was the best holiday you ever had?

Honeymoon, we did a fly-drive in America, and went from San Francisco to Los Angeles, via Mamouth Mountain in Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Phoenix and Lake Havasa.

 

Can you suggest an employee who should face the 5 question interview?

Other News...

Shell Bonus Jackpot

41 drivers on our contract with Shell shared a 2009 Jackpot fund of £24,210, receiving £590.48 each. 

 

Anthony Bennett of Plymouth and Bruce Porter at Grangemouth each received £1,000 in the 6–monthly draw.

 

Driver of the Year 2009

The Suckling Transport Driver of the Year will be announced in the next issue of the News Bulletin.  The competition is very close and it looks likely that the winner will again score 100%.

 

The award is based on Safety Record (accident, spillage and crossovers), attendance, tachos and driver hours, and a clean licence.

 

Talk the Talk

The dates for Q1: 2010 Driver Safety Talks are shown below.

 

SHELL

Avonmouth           18th&21st Jan 10

Plymouth           19th/20th Jan 10

Aberdeen           26th/27th Jan 10

Grangemouth       16th/17th Feb 10

Cardiff               22nd/25th Feb 10

Pembroke              23rd/24th Feb 10

Hythe                         9th/10th Mar 10

 

CONOCOPHILLIPS

Coryton                  27th Jan 10

West London      10th Feb 10

Westerleigh           24th Feb 10

 

PETROPLUS

Westerleigh           24th Feb 10

 

The main topics covered by the Q1 talks will be:  VRIP, Customer Care, Loading Errors and Years Safety record and targets for 2010.

 

Walk the Walk

In order to ensure our safety performance gets off to a great start in 2010, additional toolbox talks are to be held on the following dates:

 

SHELL

Avonmouth           4th/7th Jan 10

Plymouth           5th/6th Jan 10

Grangemouth       5th/6th Jan 10

Hythe                    12th/13th Jan 10

Cardiff              25th&28th Jan 10

Aberdeen          26th/27th Jan 10

Pembroke            26th/27th Jan 10

 

CONOCOPHILLIPS

Coryton                   27th Jan 10

West London      10th Feb 10

Westerleigh           24th Feb 10

 

PETROPLUS

Westerleigh           24th Feb 10

 

The extra Q1 Toolbox talks will include a very good DVD – The Cost of accidents.

 

Putting their Feet up

Last year saw several retirees from our ranks.  Bob Cooper (Coryton – 9 years services), Paul Tallack (Coryton – 6 years services), Jim Glencrose (West London – 7 years service), Brian Press (Cardiff – 19 years service), and finally Willie MacRae (Grangemouth who notched up 36 years in the industry, 24 years working with various contractors on behalf of Shell with the last 6 years service with Suckling’s).

 

In order to celebrate Willie’s achievement his colleagues and friends made a presentation of gifts and wished him well in his retirement as he looked forward to spending more time with his family, particularly the grandchildren (wonder if they are as happy).

 

We wish them a long and happy retirement.

 

Diaries

Hopefully all employees and customers received a 2010 Suckling Transport diary recently.  The diary is popular with customers and one person claims to have had a Suckling diary in his briefcase since 2002. Get a life Jonathan!

 

For fans of horse racing, the important date for your diary is not the Grand National, but the Suckling Transport Handicap Chase which, this year, will be held at Worcester racecourse on Wednesday 30th June.  Just the right amount of rain this year please.

 

News Bulletin

The next edition of the News Bulletin will be in April 2010.  Please let Sue Nicholas have any news items by early March 2010.

 

We would also like to say Happy New Year to all our employees, customers and suppliers. We hope it is a prosperous and enjoyable one for you all.

ws Bulletin

 

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