1. Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme
27th October 2015
Steve Agg
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2. What is FORS?

3. What is FORS?  Reduce emissions, raise standards, stimulate business
FORS is a unique industry led accreditation scheme aimed at transforming road fleet activity throughout the UK.
Helps operators to measure and monitor performance
Helps operators to ensure and demonstrate compliance and best practice
Links to responsible procurement
FORS is designed to improve:
Safety, efficiency and environmental protection 
Reduce emissions, raise standards, stimulate business
FORS was officially launched in 2007 and is a unique, industry led accreditation scheme aimed at changing freight delivery in London
It helps companies to measure and control performance
It helps them ensure they are operating legally and implementing best practice
And it helps suppliers to ensure they are using reputable operators
FORS is voluntary and open to anyone operating commercial vehicles
The scheme was originally focused on London, but is now available for any operator in the country to join, regardless of whether they ever come into the capital or not
So what standards do we currently have in our sector?
The industry has an obligation to comply with European legislation and although it is fairly rigorous, with strict operator licensing requirement covering a whole range of driver and vehicle safety assurance requirements For those operating under a standard licence we also have the requirement to have a competent and qualified transport manager in place however a restricted licence doesn’t have this requirement. There is no argument that the UK system is good and taking a risk based approach it does target those organisations that are more likely to offend and allow the better, more compliant operators ,to continue operating safely. It isn’t perfect however and each year we still have operators called to Public Inquiries, many losing their operating licence, drivers convicted of road transport offences, or worse, on manslaughter charges. A significant number of these organisations are simply just guilty of ignorance, not being fully aware of what they should be doing and how best to do it.
FORS is one solution to this. It is a set of standards that clearly define the internal systems required to meet a higher level of transport safety and efficiency. It provides the Quality Assurance that a company has everything necessary to meet their compliance requirements, improve the safety of their drivers and vehicles and are serious about sustaining their performance as a professional transport operator.

4. FORS Community Partnership vision
A single standard for the UK transport sector
Robust and respected by industry
Offered on a national basis
Positively position the value of FORS
Clear route to accreditation
Develop strong links with contract specifiers
Strengthen reach of FORS across UK
Build FORS presence in all fleet sectors e.g. van, bus, and coach

5. How FORS works
As a FORS accredited company, not only will you be recognised as a forward- thinking operator, but accreditation could also give you that all important competitive edge
FORS is graduated into three levels enabling you to demonstrate, to customers and other companies, your progress through the FORS journey
To become a member of FORS you must register online at
Essentially you are assessed against the FORS standards
Probably obvious that the higher the level the more serious the operator is about meeting and sustaining standards.
For many companies, contracting with a bronze operator should suffice however for large contracts and long term services the Gold operator will indicate a different level of commitment. It isn't an easy level to achieve and companies need to invest significant time to achieve it.
A bronze operator is a legally compliant operator following good practice - this is the entry level of accreditation
if you require extra work to pass. The assessor provides an action plan and advice and support on what is needed to pass.
To then progress from bronze to silver, you are required to submit 6 months worth of data into the FORS online benchmarking system in the three areas of PCNs Fuel Use and Number of incidents, and continue to keep it updated. A silver operator is high quality operator, committed to becoming safer, greener and more efficient – this is the intermediate level of accreditation
Gold membership - exceptional operator that has met specific targets and is continuing to improve – this is the highest level of accreditation

6. FORS standards MANAGEMENT VEHICLES DRIVERS OPERATIONS
Responsibilities & authority
Road worthiness
Training and assessment
Routing and scheduling
Communication
Insurance
Driving at work
Transport control
Competent person
Fleet performance
Fitness and health
Fines and charges
The FORS Standard is the backbone of the scheme and provides a structure for operators to adopt best practice and move above and beyond the O licensing requirements
The purpose of the FORS standard is to ensure, within fleet operations, certain minimum levels of legal compliance, safety, efficiency, and environmental protection. This will help to assure your clients that you are meeting certain minimum levels.
The standard is split into four core sections – Management, Vehicles, Drivers and Operators
Like any Quality Assurance system the focus is on all the key influencing factors that are necessary to maintain a business that can operate safely and efficiently. FORS has identified 4 key themes, each one contributing to the overall aim of the scheme and aligned with the various grades of accreditation. Its expected that a bronze accredited company has satisfied the basic requirement and has developed the foundations to maintain a ‘fit and healthy’ organisation. The benefits to anyone contracting with them would be the knowledge that they have significant measures in place to reduce risk, that risk being related to safety, operational activities, environmental and also to the image of the company and the sector.
What this might mean to a company that uses a FORS transport operator in preference to non FORS is an assurance that their goods in transit will be protected from any associated non-compliance activity- for example, a vehicle with a prohibition could be significantly delayed, a driver involved in an accident could cause damage to your products, an efficient company will control costs and therefore you will have a quality service at a quality price, not a poor quality service at a low cost.
There are also the added value and ethical benefits that are also evident with a FORS operator. Contractors will know that contracting with an operator that is serious about the safety of vulnerable road users (cyclists, pedestrians, motorcyclists), serious about training their employees, especially drivers and also cares about the environment and can provide evidence of how they reduce their emissions and commit to long term improvements, can only be positive for a long term customer-supplier relationship.

7. Levels of FORS accreditation
Bronze
A legally compliant operator following good practice – this is the entry level of accreditation
Silver
High quality operator; committed to becoming safer, greener and more efficient – this is the intermediate level of accreditation
Gold
Exceptional operator that has met specific targets and is continuing to improve – this is the highest level of accreditation
FORS is a progressive scheme and gives you the opportunity to rise through the accreditation levels
As a FORS accredited company, not only will you be recognised as a forward-thinking operator, but accreditation could also give you that all important competitive edge.
Broadly speaking we’d categorise bronze as operators following best practice
Silver as high quality operators committed to becoming safer, greener and more efficient
Gold as exceptional operators that are setting targets and continuously improving against them

8. 2,984 349 111 Who is FORS accredited? 26,225 23,868 161,895 OPERATORS
VEHICLES
23,868
VEHICLES
161,895
VEHICLES
Number of FORS accredited companies is growing steadily
Now have over 3,000 accredited operators. Largely bronze but with increasing numbers progressing to silver and gold

9. Improving manager skills
Developing road transport policy
Managing work related road safety
Managing driver assessment and training
Post-collision procedures and analysis
Managing driver fitness and impairment
Safe and efficient fleet management
Reducing fuel use and minimising environmental impacts
Minimising transport fines and charges
Monitoring and measuring road fleet performance
FORS offers a series of manager workshops aimed at improving safety, efficiency and fuel use
Each workshop is half day and is driver CPC accredited for those who hold vocational licences
But to be clear these workshops are aimed at supervisors and managers
A national programme of workshop dates will shortly be announced
There are a fours series running in London this year which have continued to be funded by TfL

10. Improving the safety of others
“FORS has been a key factor in changing the safety culture in road transport, with the opportunities it provides to the industry for additional training, sharing of information, and collaborative working towards on-road safety standards.”
So how good is FORS
A significant reduction in the number of collisions by those companies that are FORS accredited – and if they are involved then better systemes to avoid repeat collissions and minimise insurance claims or other costs associated with vehicle or personal damage.
Last year FORS won a Prince Michael Road Safety Award
Data input by FORS operators into the performance management system showed some great safety results – injury collisions were reduced by 41% and total collisions by 25%

11. FORS and CLOCS
You may have heard of CLOCS which stands for Construction Logistics and Cyclist Safety. This programme complements CLOCS.
Clients and main contractors sign up to CLOCS and implement the CLOCS Standard in their contracts, operators who become FORS silver can easily demonstrate that they meet the requirements of CLOCS as FORS silver is equivalent to CLOCS

12. Thank you