FORS, the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme, has announced Dave Richmond, logistics and traffic manager at Costain, as its 700th FORS practitioner.

Completing all nine courses in less than five weeks, Richmond is one of a few to gain practitioner status in such a short time. 

FORS Practitioners are a dedicated group of transport, health and safety and logistics managers who have taken part in a series of nine workshops designed to provide a thorough grounding in best practice for commercial vehicle operators.

Topics in the workshops include developing road transport policy, safe and efficient fleet management, and monitoring and measuring road fleet performance.

Delegates can attend one or all of the nine workshops, in any order, but all workshops must be completed to gain FORS practitioner status.

Tideway East - the licensed infrastructure provider set up to finance, build, maintain and operate the Thames Tideway Tunnel and run by a joint venture including Costain, VINCI Construction Grands Projects and Bachy Soletanche - is a FORS champion and promotes the importance of FORS compliance throughout its supply chain. 

Richmond undertook the series of FORS practitioner workshops to have an in-depth knowledge of the requirements that Tideway is pushing for its suppliers to be compliant with. He said: “As a logistics manager and a FORS champion, I have to ensure that our suppliers are reaching the levels of safety and standards of FORS.”

With Tideway’s continued focus on safety, Richmond found the course on ‘Managing Work Related Road Risk’ particularly useful. “The reason we were keen to be involved with FORS was because of its focus on safety,” he said, “and although this was one of the most useful courses, the whole package of workshops interlink and have a theme of safety that is key for us.”

FORS director John Hix said: “I am pleased to congratulate Dave on achieving his Practitioner status. Tideway is a proud Champion of FORS and is dedicated to pushing the safety standards. Safety is a key part of our training and practitioner workshops, so we are delighted that we can welcome Dave as the 700th person to have completed this crucial set of training.”

He added: “Dave has been truly enthusiastic in his approach to completing this series of workshops, finishing the course in less than five weeks.”

FORS practitioner courses are fully funded for current FORS members and there is a requirement throughout FORS Bronze, Silver and Gold for operators to demonstrate that staff undergo approved, progressive training.