Health and safety compliance should be critical for every organisation and in most businesses risk exposure is at its greatest among employees that drive as part of their job.

Having identified occupational road risk as being one of the key issues within its overall health and safety performance, HSS Hire Group, the UK and Ireland’s national supplier of tool and equipment hire and specialist services with more than 265 locations, has implemented a wide range of initiatives.

Delegates to the first Commercial Fleet Summit and Exhibition on Thursday, September 24 at the International Centre, Telford, will be able to discover at first hand the measures HSS Hire group has implemented to make it one of the UK’s safest fleets.

Last year, the number of fleet ‘incidents’ reduced 27% per 100,000kms driven on the previous 12 months thus underlining HSS Hire’s safety commitment.

However, for HSS Hire safety is not about treating the fleet in isolation, but implementing a health and safety focused regime across the business, which is why David Phillips, the company’s group logistics director, will be explaining at the Summit “how to create a safety culture within your fleet and wider business”.

The company operates a high profile fully liveried fleet across the UK and Ireland of some 400 commercial vehicles driven by 650 employees.

Phillips is responsible for logistics strategy across the group with direct operational responsibility for service delivery to customers. That embraces the delivery and collection of the company’s plant and tool hire equipment and national distribution of kit across the company’s branch network to maintain availability.

HSS Hire’s drivers undertake around 3,500 delivery and collection jobs per day across the UK and Ireland to both customers and branches.

Therefore, said Phillips: “Our commercial fleet with full livery and our drivers are brand ambassadors for the company given the national coverage and level of exposure we have on a daily basis.

“That means we want our drivers and vehicles to communicate the company’s values when they are on the road and safety is one of the most important. To that end everything we do in terms of our logistics operation is about safety.”

HSS Hire Group has achieved the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme’s top gold standard and is also a member of the Freight Transport Association-managed Van Excellence best practice scheme.

Phillips said: “HSS Hire takes a responsible approach to the way we work and behave, both inside and outside the organisation, and our number one operating priority is making sure the business is a safe place for colleagues to work, and customers to hire from.

“To that end all our drivers receive advanced driving skills training and we develop our transport teams so they embrace the standards the business works to and expects all employees to adopt. Everything is focused on achieving a culture of safety within our fleet and across the business.”

Limited tickets remain for the Commercial Fleet Summit. Book your place at www.commercialfleetsummit.co.uk or contact Emma-Louise Kinnaird on 01733 395133 or emma-louise.kinnaird@bauermedia.co.uk.

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