The 10th annual Fleet Safety Forum Awards for Excellence, sponsored by fleet and fuel management company Arval, were held on Thursday 14 June at a prestigious gala dinner at the MacDonald Burlington Hotel in Birmingham, with more than 240 guests.
The awards are run by the Fleet Safety Forum, a division of Brake, the road safety charity, to recognise the achievements of those working in the field of road risk management. It is hoped that the night will have raised more than £30,000 for Brake, helping to fund the charity’s life-saving educational projects and vital support for bereaved and seriously injured road crash victims .
The 2012 Fleet Safety Forum Award winners are:
- Safe Vehicles Award: Iron Mountain Europe Ltd
- Fleet Safety Innovation Award: Royal Mail
- Fleet Safety Partnership Award: Nestle Mexico and Interactive Driving Systems
- Fleet Safety Product Award: ASL Vision for the ASL360 Surround View Camera
- Fleet Safety Analysis and Action Award: Royal Mail
- Eco Fleet Award: MITIE
- Company Driver Safety Awards: Pfizer (large fleet sub-category); Eurovia (medium fleet sub-category); Gateshead Council (small fleet sub-category)
- Road Safety in the Community Award: Ocado
- Road Risk Manager of the Year Awards: Iain McKay, Coca Cola Enterprises
- Kevin Storey Award for Outstanding Commitment to Road Safety: Martin ‘Nobby’ Clark, Balfour Beatty Plant and Fleet Services.
The Fleet Safety Innovation Award, recognising pioneering approaches to road safety, went to Royal Mail. The award recognised Royal Mail’s dynamic and continually developing fleet safety programme , which aims to achieve an ambitious goal of zero crashes through cultural change, and incorporates sharing of good practice with other fleets. Their crash rate per vehicle has reduced by 24% over a two year period, while their fleet grew by 14% to more than 35,000 vehicles. Royal Mail also received the Fleet Safety Analysis and Action Award for their use of data to identify the need for interventions and review the effectiveness of safety measures on an ongoing basis.
Gateshead Council was awarded the Company Driver Safety Award for small fleets. Gateshead has demonstrated a clear understanding of the need to engage drivers with safety measures rather than simply issuing rules. In the past year the organisation has built on its comprehensive risk management programme by introducing a ‘good driver’ reward scheme and installing vehicle telemetry, and has had a strong focus on improving young driver safety.
Iain McKay of Coca Cola Enterpriseswas awarded the Road Risk Manager of the Year Award for his dedication to road safety both in and out of working hours. Based at the company’s East Kilbride depot, Iain proposed the company’s Road Safety Awareness Campaign be instated as an ongoing programme and produced content for it including more than 70 information sheets and six presentations. These have now been distributed to more than 5,000 Coca Cola employees throughout the UK.
The Kevin Storey Award went to Martin ‘Nobby’ Clark of Balfour Beatty. ‘Nobby’ received the award after 27 years of passionately engaging with road safety issues. A former police traffic officer and family liaison officer, Martin is committed to a vision of zero fatalities on UK roads and his work on road safety has ranged from running workshops in schools to influence young driver behaviour through to setting up Balfour Beatty Plant and Fleet Services’ driver risk management programme. His ‘Drive Survive’ workshops have been attended by more than 20,000 young people and vehicle incidents have halved since his arrival at Balfour Beatty.
The winners were selected from almost 70 entries across the 10 categories. For a full list of winners and highly commended entrants, see below.
Julie Townsend, deputy chief executive at Brake, said: “The Fleet Safety Forum Awards are now in their 10th year and we are proud that this important event continues to grow, showing the huge amount of commitment to managing road risk within the industry. The Awards are all about recognising hard work, innovation and achievement in fleet safety, and they are a valuable way for us to review and share good practice. Throughout the coming year, we will be disseminating case studies on our winners through the Fleet Safety Forum, to inspire and assist other organisations to do more to drive down crashes and casualties. Brake congratulates all the winners for their work to reduce risk, prevent devastating deaths and injuries, and make our roads safer.”
Tracey Scarr, fleet and road safety manager at Arval, said: “Road safety is vital and companies cannot afford to neglect their duty of care responsibilities for the safety of their drivers. Arval is proud to sponsor the Brake Fleet Safety Forum Awards for the fifth consecutive year and we would like to congratulate all of this year’s winners for their outstanding efforts. It is always fantastic to see so many companies actively taking steps to mitigate their own road risk and helping to make our roads safer.”
Many of the entries received by the Fleet Safety Forum will be used as best practice case studies in information and advice produced by the Forum over the coming year.
The Fleet Safety Forum is a low-cost subscription scheme for fleet professionals operated by the charity Brake. Subscribers receive regular e-bulletins and mailings packed with up-to-the minute risk management information, plus discounted invitations to conferences and workshops. Subscription costs just £155+VAT per year with discounts available for small fleets. To find out more, go to fleetsafetyforum.org, or call 01484 559909.
