Dore to Door achieves FORS gold standard

Dore to Door has marked its 10th anniversary by achieving the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) gold standard.

FORS is a voluntary scheme open to any company operating commercial vehicles across the UK or overseas.

Its remit is to drive-up standards in the road transport industry with respect to safety, efficiency and environmental protection. 

Members begin at entry-level bronze before moving up to FORS silver and finally gold, the highest level of FORS accreditation. 

Receiving its gold accreditation puts Dore to Door amongst just over 300 operators nationwide to achieve the standard.

Dore to Door’s managing director and founder David Dore said: “We chose to become FORS accredited as a growing number of sites required FORS accreditation.

“Once we had achieved bronze and silver, gold seemed a natural next step.

“We invested a great deal of time and money into our staff and fleet from the very beginning, so reaching gold accreditation fits perfectly with our company ethos.”

Alongside increasing the number of customer enquiries, Dore says FORS accreditation was key to the company gaining a contract with Lindner GmBH on the Crossrail project. This project has seen Dore to Door transporting materials from Germany to their warehouse in Feltham, and then to sites in London.

The Dore to Door fleet includes 14 trucks and eight vans, with further vans and trucks on order and all of these vehicles are equipped with fuel consumption recording devices to maximise efficiency.

Its 35 members of staff completed FORS eLearning and classroom training, including FORS Professional Safe Urban Driving, where participants complete a practical ‘on cycle’ element helping understand a cyclist’s experience of the road.

Dore and Claire Wall, operations director, have both sought to raise the company to even higher operational standards undertaking FORS Practitioner training, a series of 10 FORS training sessions for managers.

Both are now on the cusp of becoming qualified FORS Practitioners. Wall said: “I have found the FORS Practitioners courses very interesting. They have given me lots of ideas that I can introduce into our business, to help embed FORS, to really help us continue in our bid to raise operational standards.”

Sonia Hayward, FORS manager, said: “Congratulations to David and the team at Dore to Door on their 10th anniversary.

“It is great to see how Dore to Door has embraced FORS and its requirements, going from Bronze to Gold, the highest level of accreditation.

“FORS is all about raising standards so I am delighted that Claire has found the FORS Practitioner workshops useful and has managed to apply some of that knowledge into every-day practices.”

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.