JWS News Bulletin Issue 60 - Autumn Edition - 14th October 2011

Contents

EuroTra Safety and Innovation Award Success

An intelligent approach to driver training has seen Suckling Transport win the EuroTra Safety and Innovation Award 2011. The use of driver performance data to instructors to identify the specific training requirements, and specialist training for six in-house Driver Instructors has not only yielded them top prize in this international annual competition but also some other very compelling benefits.

Peter Larner, Managing Director said: “Safety has been the top priority since Suckling Transport began to specialise in the distribution of fuel 25 years ago. In a sector dominated by multi-national logistics providers, an SME like Suckling Transport, needs to stand out. And what better way to differentiate itself than through an innovative approach to road safety”.

The Freight Transport Association is responsible for the research, management, administration and development of this PAN-European award. James Tillyer of the FTA’s Consultancy team and President of EuroTra said:

“I’m delighted that the award panel recognised the significant efforts made by Suckling Transport to improve the safety culture within its driver workforce. This pragmatic approach has clearly paid dividends, and it leads the way as a model that most European transport companies could apply within their own environment”.

“The core value of the award is enhancing safety through new and innovative ways of thinking, and the skills builder programme and intervention training fits perfectly with this value”.

SVQ Certificates Issued

52 Scottish based drivers became the first Suckling Transport employees to receive SVQ level 3 (Driving Goods Vehicles) certification along with a Certificate of Completion for a Modern Apprenticeship. The drivers are based in all of the companies operating bases in Scotland covering our contract with Shell UK Oil and Tankshare operations out of Grangemouth.

Drivers were assessed by an external body against the companies own procedures covering all aspects of the job from prestart vehicle checks, vehicle loading, the journey itself and on through to final delivery. For the company it gives assurance that best practise and robust procedures are complied with.

Drivers based in England and Wales will begin the process towards NVQs shortly (Jim Hetherton receiving his SVQ & modern apprentice certificates).

Keeping Focused

Suckling Transport operates 33 Focus Groups to manage and improve Key Performance Indicators for safety, service, cost and the environment. There are 8 Focus Groups working specifically on Shell KPIs, 13 managing our ConocoPhillips KPIs and 12 groups that look after generic issues across the whole of our business. These cover vehicle accident severity/frequency, spillages, crossovers, TRCs, absence and fuel efficiency.

Each Group is challenged to improve the Company’s best ever performance in that category. This daunting challenge was achieved by the majority of the groups last year.

With less than 3 months to go, 22 groups are on target to succeed in 2011. These include 6 out of 8 Shell, 9 out of 13 ConocoPhillips and 7 out of 12 Joint groups.

Surveys

The Company recently conducted employee surveys on safety and communication. Thank you to all employees who took part.

In the health and safety survey, the vast majority of employees were satisfied with the arrangements we have in place. Questions such as ‘Is Suckling Transport a safe place to work?’ attracted a resounding 97% ‘Yes’ return.

The communication survey produced a similar result. In every category, the vast majority of employees were either satisfied or very satisfied with both the formal and informal arrangements that are in place for communications. The News Bulletin got a 100% vote of confidence (Thanks).

Managers will now take a close look at the answers to both surveys and try to improve our current arrangements where possible.

Silver for Scotland

The workforce in Scotland has added the Healthy Working Lives Silver award to the bronze award it received in 2009 following an assessment visit in September.

“Suckling Transport has contributed in a very positive manner”, said Sir Andrew Cubie CBE, FRSE, the Chairman of the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives.

“The aim of the project is to improve the health and well-being of our employees,” said Regional Business Manager Alex McPhee, “ and we now hope to improve still further and achieve Gold status.”

It is hoped that the best practises adopted in Scotland can be rolled out across the rest of the business.

Skills Builder

The completion of the new RTL Skynet website this month enables Suckling Transport to further improve its Skills Builder programme, that recently earned the Company the EuorTra Safety award.

The RTL system produces data on skill levels for drivers in respect of items such as harsh braking and over-revving. This information is fed into the Skills Builder database and intervention training is arranged with our Instructor Team.

The Instructors are equipped with laptops, so they may interrogate the RTL reports

The Company sees intervention training replacing periodic training in the future, as it recognises the needs of the individual employee.

The webpage below provides further details of our EuroTra Award.

http://www.eurotra.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=26&Itemid=93

New Vehicles & Trailers

New MAN vehicles for McTankShare

4 new MAN TGS 440s will arrive in October for our Tankshare operation in Grangemouth. Three of these will be in Tankshare livery. The TGS is currently Suckling Transport‘s preferred vehicle in Grangemouth due to the locality of the main dealer, plus it provides benefits in weight reduction, and through life costs. They join 10 TGS already based in Grangemouth.

New trailers make light work of it

8 new Lakeland Innovator trailers are currently entering service at Aberdeen, Clydebank, Hythe and Grangemouth.

From the outset Lakeland Tankers and Suckling Transport have been working closely to produce a trailer with weight reduction measures over previous designs. The design of the valance has been reworked to reduce weight, plus light weight airbags fitted, and earth cables fitted instead of dip tubes. Lighter BPW axles with new design callipers are also fitted.

With the removal of the cargo pumps and hydraulics the tare weight is 5530 kgs, a saving of 380kgs over our 2009 Lakelands. All 8 of the trailers should be in service by November.

Worcester 2011

The 1mKm Challenge fund raising day at Worcester in the summer was an enormous success. A fantastic £2300.00 was raised for the sponsored charity, Transaid.

Alan Archer, who works on the Company’s contract with ConocoPhillips at Coryton was on hand to receive the cheque as captain of the England team.

Many of our customers attended the day, along with representatives of our insurers and our special guest Dr Will Murray, who is one of the country’s leading road safety experts.

The Suckling Transport Handicap Chase was won by Kiama.

More 1mKm Challenge Winners

The total amount of money raised for charities through the Company’s 1mKm Challenge passed the £10,000 mark in September when the England team achieved one million kilometres of incident-free driving for a record fourth time.

Congratulations to Alan Archer and his England team colleagues on a fantastic achievement. After both Scotland and Wales hit the target before them, England have now hit it four times.

Teams have to complete one million kilometres of driving without being involved in any type of accident, whether blameworthy or not, and without any spillages, contaminations or personal injuries. So well done.

A cheque for £500.00 was presented to Linda Collis, who is raising money for a charity close to the Company’s head office at West Thurrock—the St Luke’s Hospice.

Linda is going to be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for the hospice.

The team of drivers working on our contract with Shell at Avonmouth also collected £500 for their sponsored charity St Peter’s Hospice, by clocking up a second successive one million kilometres of safe driving.

League Table

The current 1mKm league table as of 1st September is:

International Team:
England                       976,234
Wales                           907,836
Scotland                       783,337

Operating Centre Team:
Avonmouth                2,169,863
Pembroke                     737,753
Nustar G’mouth           709,200
Cardiff                            624,658
Aberdeen                      535,890
W’Leigh (Petroplus)    433,973
Management                430,014
Nustar Clydebank       350,598
Plymouth                       314,945
West London                229,041
Coryton                          206,575
G’mouth (T/Share)      195,666
Hythe                              171,233

My Top Ten

Joanne Tew our Management Accountant at head office, took the ‘My Top Ten’ interview this time round.

Record
Debussy, Jessie J, Imelda May.

TV Programme
Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, Little Britain.

Book
Anything by Charlene Harris.

Film
Pay it Forward, Pride and Prejudice.

TV Personality
Ant & Dec.

Holiday Resort
Las Vegas – it’s an experience!

Restaurant
White Horse – I’ll never live down that enormous dessert!

Suckling Employee
Pat and Jackie – they are a big asset to me, so hard working, they make my job easier.

Sports Person
Henry Cooper, as I was fortunate to meet him.

Motto, slogan or quote
What goes around, comes around! – Karma!

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

Other News...

Safety Talks

The dates for Q4: 2011 Driver Safety Talks are shown below.

SHELL
Clydebank          18/19 Oct
Aberdeen           25/26 Oct
Plymouth            25/26 Oct
Hythe                   8/9 Nov
Grangemouth    15/16 Nov
Cardiff                  21/24 Nov
Pembroke           22/23 Nov
Avonmouth         24/27 Nov

CONOCOPHILLIPS
West London     5 Oct
Coryton               3 Nov

Topics for this quarter include Safety Statistics and previous incidents, fatigue, seasonal hazards and slip, trip and falls.

Another Great Client's Audit

Suckling Transport passed its latest 6-monthly ISO9001 audit with flying colours recently.

The external auditor from WQA commented: “Audits by the client’s own customers state compliments such as ‘high level of compliance and hugely positive experience’. Increase in performance in last 3 years from 71% to 96% is quite an achievement. Document and form control and traceability are excellent”.

New TankShare Customers
Three new companies joined the long list of TankShare customers recently.

A warm welcome to Onward Fuels, Turiff and Pace Fuel care.

Thank you for your business.

MAN Factory Visit
Suckling Transport holds regular review meetings with our main vehicle manufacturer MAN. These are usually confined to the board rooms in Swindon and Harwood House. But July’s review meeting had a classic twist. It was held at the Morgan Motor Factory in Malvern, home of the iconic sports car builder. Dan Bauckham, Jess Clewley and Kathy King attended from Suckling Transport. Delegates also included Jim Souter from PCL, John Allsopp from MAN Bristol, plus Mark Price and Peter Harris, our main contacts at MAN.

The visit included a tour around the factory, plus a preview of the new Morgan three wheeler, which all had a chance to sit in to provide feedback on the driving position.

News Bulletin

The next edition of the News Bulletin will be 1st January 2012.

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

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