City of London Corporation specifies FORS in supply chain contracts

The City of London Corporation is now specifying FORS accreditation across the authority’s procurement contracts and supply chains.

The local authority for London’s Square Mile is among a group of just five operators to have achieved FORS Gold accreditation for 10 consecutive years.

Business performance and transport group manager, Vince Dignam, says that FORS accreditation has delivered significant benefits for the The City of London Corporation’s fleet, which comprises a mixture of passenger cars, light commercial vehicles (LCVs), and a handful of light goods vehicles (LGVs).

“The standout improvements that we’ve seen have been in safety, improved emissions, and training,” said Dignam.

“By placing more of an emphasis on improving air quality and lowering our carbon footprint, we’ve been able to bolster the green credentials of our fleet.

“We’ve also derived enormous benefit from the range of training available through FORS. Whether it’s through our managers and supervisors taking the FORS Practitioner workshops, or our drivers taking online driver training modules, FORS Professional training has really raised the bar when it comes to the ongoing development of our team.”

He continued: “One of the learnings we’ve taken from our journey with FORS is the importance of the bigger picture and the standard we should expect from our supply chain.

“Both our cleansing & waste and highways maintenance contractors, for instance, have been part of the FORS journey with us. One of the benefits of specifying FORS in contracts of this nature is having all drivers trained to the same standard for safety, courtesy of courses like FORS Safe Urban Driving and Van Smart.

“What we felt, from our own FORS experience, was that if we specify compliance with the FORS Standard and require that contractors apply that same level of professionalism to their operation, we can have full confidence in the entire supply chain. One standard adhered to by all is the best way forward.”

The Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) is a voluntary accreditation scheme established in 2008. It is open to UK and non-UK fleet operators, and to the organisations that award contracts to those operators.

Photo caption: City of London's business performance and transport group manager, Vince Dignam (second from right), promoting FORS with highways contractor, JB Riney, at a St Patrick's Day parade in London.