This year has been a pretty impressive for the complementary FORS and CLOCS initiatives. It’s clear both schemes are going from strength to strength and becoming embedded in a range of sectors as the national standards for quality fleet operations and managing road risk in supply chains.

FORS in 2016

FORS has now completed its second year under the management of the FORS Community Partnership. The year kicked off with a meeting of the Governance and Standards Advisory Group (GSAG) where new members, TNT, HS2 and Highways England were announced. GSAG began a review of the FORS Standard with the aim of ensuring it remains relevant and current, more on this later.

The growth of FORS was well and truly cemented with the release of the 2015 Annual Report in March. A couple of notable figures from the report included:

  • 32% increase in the number of FORS accredited organisations
  • 315% growth in Gold accredited operators
  • 50 fully trained FORS Auditors at the end of 2015 – grown from 23 at the start of the year

Reading the report’s quite impressive credentials really supports the fact that the scheme is now in force across the whole of the UK and it’s envisaged that this significant growth will continue well into 2017 and beyond.

The FORS Standard

As part of two yearly review, the new FORS Standard, version 4.0, was released in September. No fundamental changes appeared to have been made. However, a few areas worthy of comment include a requirement to help address the skills shortage with operators having a plan in place to recruit new drivers into the industry. Version 4.0 also features the strongest environmental credentials to date with a new section covering other transport modes, such as water and rail, and exploring the use of alternatively powered vehicles. This is further supported by the change to ‘Performance Data’ reflecting the need to actively work to reduce emissions that affect air quality.

Following swiftly on the heels of the updated Standard came a brand-new website, which delivered improved usability with a clean, fresh layout clearly detailing the process for accreditation. It’s also been cleverly split into relevant sections for all interested parties, along with a personalised ‘dashboard’ putting operators in full control of their audits and membership.

Industry events

To close the year, FORS held its first ever Members Conference in November. The event was well attended and featured a positive agenda of notable speaker from across the haulage and logistics sectors. There was also a comprehensive exhibition of suppliers showcasing products and services to reflect the FORS principles of safety, efficiency and environmental protection.

One of the key driving forces behind the success of FORS, is the construction industry taking ownership of road risk in their supply chains through the implementation of CLOCS. This level of commitment from industry was evident at the fifth CLOCS Progress event which took place in March. The conference and exhibition saw 650 delegates in attendance and was a showcase for an impressive 29 safer and cleaner vehicles from manufacturers and CLOCS ‘Champions’. All of these vehicles were perfect examples of how direct vision has been increased in HGVs and gave delegates the chance to see the latest tech fitted to vehicles.

At the event, it was great to see significant support from Build UK, which acts as a collective voice for the construction supply chain. They launched their ‘Don’t break the chain’ campaign which looks to promote CLOCS as the recognised industry standard for managing road risk.

In June, the construction logistics industry gathered at the annual Tip-Ex event in Harrogate where both Mercedes-Benz and Scania added their weight to the CLOCS initiative. Mercedes announced it would be promoting its CLOCS work across Europe with its parent company Daimler working with its UK division to take the CLOCS message to IAA the International Motor Show in Hanover.

Scania used the event to unveil a tipper designed specifically for use in city centres. The manufacturer had worked with Transport for London and industry partners to develop an industry first – a tipper with a direct line of sight to the all-important front nearside via a glazed door; full air suspension to enable chassis lowering in urban areas to provide enhanced visibility. The tipper also demonstrated a lightweight body, giving an increased payload of almost 21 tonnes.

Direct Vision

A game-changing announcement was made by Sadiq Khan in September which will impact on all operators working in London. This is a great example of the power of industry collaboration. It demonstrates how ingrained attitudes and cultures can be challenged through an initiative like CLOCS to change an industry for the good. The HGV Direct Vision Standard will see all vehicles assessed and rated for the level of vision available to drivers. This Standard was as a direct result of the work of CLOCS Workstream 1 – which looks to improve vehicle safety through design and manufacture of safer new vehicles.

Following the extremely successful FORS partnership approach, CLOCS was handed over to industry from Transport for London in August. The new managing partnership is being led by SECBE and supported by Construction Clients’ Group, LHC, Build UK and the Considerate Constructors Scheme. The remit of this new partnership is to take CLOCS nationwide and each party has a role to embed, monitor, promote and expand the standard in sites, companies and suppliers.

So, if this year is anything to go by, it will be interesting to see how both schemes develop and strengthen even further in 2017. Keep up with how all of this unfolds at fors-online.org.uk and clocs.org.uk