FORS helps put road safety and green agendas to the fore

From its origins with Transport for London, the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) is now helping to raise the safety and environmental standards of vehicle fleet operations nationwide, with more than 4,900 members. FORS director John Hix explained how the scheme works to Geoff Dudley

Fleet operation provides an essential pillar for a modern economy, not only in the supply of goods in such key sectors as construction, but in the provision of delivery services generally, and in sectors such as public transport. The modern trend towards internet shopping has only increased the demand for vehicle operation, but the increased emphasis on fleet work has also heightened public and political pressure to improve standards of efficiency, safety and environmental protection. In general, the emphasis has been on statutory provision in areas such as operational quality and quantity licensing, the regulation of drivers’ hours, and mitigating environmental impacts through such measures as emission standards. This has left a gap in terms of an industry-led body that can become widely accepted in accrediting fleet operators for good practice and to raise standards generally. 

One of the principal bodies seeking to fill this industry gap over the past decade has been the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS). Founded by Transport for London’s freight unit in 2008, and originally named the Freight Operator Recognition Scheme, FORS was based in the capital, and was introduced to improve commercial vehicle standards and safety. It was founded as a key project arising from the London Freight Plan, which aimed to co-ordinate the role of freight in London’s growth. The scheme offered incentives and other encouragements to freight operators who adopted best practice, while addressing illegal and dangerous road behaviour. Registered members were required to undergo an independent assessment of their business before being accepted to the basic level and awarded Bronze membership status. Over the following years, progressive Silver and Gold awards were added, and the change in title from ‘Freight’ to ‘Fleet’ reflected the increase in the number of sectors covered, so that organisations were able to register if they operated any vehicle involved in the movement of materials, products, passengers, valuables, equipment, tools, waste, food, vehicles or luggage which included one or more of lorries, vans, buses, coaches, fleet cars, and motor cycles and scooters. 

A major change took place in 2015, when TfL appointed a team led by consultant AECOM as concessionaire to manage, operate and grow FORS, and expand the scheme nationwide. With 65 per cent of FORS accredited operators based outside London, TfL considered that FORS had grown beyond its remit. The FORS community partnership, comprising AECOM, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), and specialist fleet services support organisation Fleet Source, was given the task of operating the scheme and making it financially self-supporting. CILT was responsible for the governance of FORS, while Fleet Source was to be responsible for certification and audit, together with some aspects of training.

Today FORS has over 4,900 members, and over 122,000 accredited vehicles. The scheme encompasses all aspects of safety, efficiency and environmental protection by encouraging fleet operators to measure, monitor, and improve performance. It provides accreditation pathways for operators of any type, and for those organisations that award contracts and supply transport requirements. 

FORS director John Hix sees the scheme’s primary role as an enabler: “Fundamentally, we are an accreditation scheme. Through the Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards, this entitles you to be shown as a FORS accredited operator. This is basically what FORS is about. 

“I believe FORS has achieved a huge amount to contribute to a change of culture on the part of fleet operators. The scheme is voluntary, but industry-based, and improves standards, such as in driver training, and equipping managers with the skills to enable them to manage a fleet, not just from a theoretical perspective, or maintaining basic compliance, but to operate a secure and high performance business.”

Hix explains that, since FORS became a nationwide scheme, it has established itself across the UK: “We have good links with all the English regions, and in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In addition to the Bronze, Silver and Gold awards, we have a whole suite of support services for members, such as practitioner courses, which are provided around the country. We do have a concentration of members in the South East of England, but we are not London-centric, and we have become increasingly diversified.”

In spreading FORS across the country, a particular effort has been made to involve the local authorities, and Hix describes the contribution they can make to the success of the scheme: “We encourage the local authorities to think about work-related road risk. For example, they buy in a lot of services that involve commercial fleets, and so we encourage local authorities to become FORS specifiers for their suppliers. This means that they will require the FORS standard in their supply chain. FORS accreditation can also be built into planning conditions, enabling local authorities to ensure best practice standards are met by the entire supply chain involved in their development projects. This allows public sector bodies to build support for further opportunities to reduce the impact of fleet services on the road network.”

He continues: “We also encourage local authorities with their own fleets to become FORS members. In this respect, we have done a lot of work with the North East Combined Authority, particularly in the area of highways [contracts]. In addition, Hampshire County Council requires FORS for their highways contracts, and Northamptonshire County Council also stipulates the need for FORS for a variety of activities.”

Governance

FORS is governed by the governance and standards advisory group (GSAG). The industry base of the scheme is reflected in that GSAG is made up of key operators, specifiers, and stakeholders, who together ensure that the FORS standard is progressive and remains relevant. The group monitors operational compliance with the FORS standard and terms and conditions, and therefore seeks to ensure that FORS standards are subject to continuous improvement and remain relevant to industry’s needs, and are compatible with all the relevant legislation. Consequently, it can recommend changes, improvements and additions to the scheme as appropriate. 

AECOM, CILT and Fleet Source, as the members of the FORS community partnership, are all standing members of the GSAG, together with TfL as the founder of the scheme. All other members are invited to serve for two years initially, extendable by an additional year. The community partnership is responsible for nominating the GSAG chairman, who is currently Steve Agg, the  former chief executive of CILT. Current members of GSAG include representatives from a wide range of interests, including the City of London Corporation, the Confederation of Passenger Transport, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, Highways England, High Speed 2 Ltd, the Mineral Products Association, the North East Combined Authority, Transport for Greater Manchester, Tarmac, TNT, and Travis Perkins.

Hix explains that FORS has a commitment to not only spread the scheme across a wide range of sectors, but also improve standards in general: “FORS covers a large number of sectors, including heavy and light vehicles, a huge number of vans, and passenger transport. We want to spread across the UK with accessibility for as many sectors as possible. For example, we would like to include motorcycle deliveries, which are becoming quite a common feature nowadays, and have their own safety issues.

“Every two years we have a review of the standards for the various sectors,” he continues. “The GSAG sets up review groups in order to update standards in terms of best practice and technologies. This year is a review year, and in particular we want to make sure the standard is fit for purpose for passenger carrying vehicles, with more specific requirements laid out.”

He emphasises that FORS has achieved one of its principal objectives on being handed over in 2015 from TfL to the community partnership: “One of the principal challenges was to move the scheme from one fully funded by the public purse to being able to stand on its own feet. We don’t have any external support and are self-funding. The industry has got behind FORS and supported it. No one knew how things were going to proceed, but the fleet operators were enthusiastic to back it.” Annual fees range from a special rate of £65 plus VAT for one vehicle, £80 plus VAT for two to five vehicles, up to £2,250 plus VAT for more than 100 vehicles. There are also subscription and audit discounts available for charities and local authorities.

Bronze, Silver and Gold

At the heart of FORS is the accreditation scheme of progressive Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards. The basic aims here are that Bronze should represent a legally compliant operator following good practice, Silver should represent a high quality operator committed to becoming safer, and Gold an exceptional operator that has met specific targets. For each award, there are four key areas comprising management, vehicles, drivers and operations. For each of these, requirements are primarily based around legal compliance, safety, efficiency, and environmental protection. 

As the first of the three levels under the FORS scheme, Bronze is designed to bring safety, environmental and efficiency benefits for fleet operators by encouraging the adoption of best practice industry standards. A successful Bronze audit therefore provides an operator with reassurance that their operation is being run safely, efficiently, and in an environmentally sound manner. The operator’s operations are audited against the requirements of the FORS standard by an approved FORS certification body. It is also emphasised that FORS standards specifically address the legal requirements of operating vehicles commercially in the UK, and that, by achieving FORS accreditation, operators can be reassured that their fleet meets all legislative requirements, thereby simplifying a frequently arduous process. For example, at Bronze level operators will be ready to meet the requirements of the Transport for London/London Councils Safer Lorry Scheme. This mandates basic safety equipment (side under-run protection and safety mirrors) on all commercial vehicles over 3.5 tonnes. At Silver level, operators will meet the requirements of the standard for the Construction Logistics and Community Safety initiative (CLOCS), and also TfL’s own work-related road risk requirements.

Hix explains the initial steps in becoming a FORS member: “The first step is that you register for FORS. You then have three months to attain the Bronze accreditation. Not everyone achieves this first time, although many do. Membership lapses if Bronze is not achieved, but you can try again. If you achieve Bronze, it is then reviewed on an annual basis.” There are three methods of attaining FORS accreditation, and the applicability of each is dependent on the number of operating centres the operator wishes to include in the scope for accreditation. The three methods are therefore single operating centre, multi-operating centre, and whole fleet.

Progression to Silver and Gold accreditation is not mandatory, but FORS points out that this process may help in complying with more rigorous procurement conditions. Once the Bronze award has been attained, the Silver requirements are aimed at improving the overall safety of the operator’s fleet vehicles, which in turn ensures compliance with WRRR. The award of Silver also ensures compliance with CLOCS. This in turn is an indicator of the roots of FORS in TfL, so that, in earlier years, membership of FORS was dominated by the construction industry.

As Hix explains: “CLOCS was established in 2012 following an independent review commissioned by TfL of the construction sector’s transport activities, in order to understand the causes of collisions between construction vehicles and cyclists. Between 2008 and 2013, more than half of cyclist fatalities in London involved a heavy goods vehicle, with a large number of these being construction vehicles.” He adds: “CLOCS therefore brought together developers, construction companies, operators, vehicle manufacturers and regulatory bodies to ensure a safety culture was embedded across the construction industry.”

A further connection with TfL is that the Silver award requires a programme of delivering courses on safer vehicle driving to drivers, and this includes the TfL-funded Safe Urban Driving course. This is part classroom-based, but also includes an on-street cycling element in order to understand the vulnerabilities of cyclists. At Silver level, vehicles are also required to have blind spot visualisation requirements, including camera and sensor systems, together with an audible warning to be heard by pedestrians if the vehicle is about to make a left turn. In order to be awarded Silver, performance data are also assessed, including fuel, emissions, accidents, fines and charges.

A landmark was reached recently when Rexel UK, a leading distributor of electrical goods and services, became the 1,000th company to attain Silver accreditation with FORS. The accreditation applied to Rexel’s Dagenham location, one of 17 sites made up of distribution centres, hubs and larger locations across the UK. Since joining the scheme in 2014, Rexel has attained FORS Bronze status at nine of its hub locations, although FORS best practice principles have been adopted throughout the 17 sites.

The requirements for the Gold award primarily involve best practice measures, including operators promoting the FORS standard to their supply chain, and demonstrating meaningful improvements against the baseline data gathered in FORS Silver. Operators must therefore demonstrate that previous measures and interventions have worked through data that verifies improved performance and reduced collisions, together with environmental aspects such as reduced noise. Hix also explains that the Gold award involves a consideration of mode shift: “We ask that operators consider alternative modes, such as from road to rail. We are not saying that they have got to do it, but they need to assess the opportunity.” In 2017, FORS assesses that Silver and Gold members reduced their damage only, slight and serious injury incidents by six per cent. In addition, it is assessed that FORS Silver and Gold companies typically save six per cent on fuel use.

In order to become an accreditation body conducting FORS audits, applicants must meet the FORS certification requirements, including qualifications for the individuals involved. Hix explains that some large companies can be licensed to conduct their own audits of their suppliers: “Some organisations can have their own quality and compliance workforce, and we can approve them to conduct FORS audits. For example, a company such as Tarmac will have around 30 of their own quality and compliance workforce, and they can be approved by FORS to audit their supply chain.”

FORS benefits

Membership of FORS also provides a number of other benefits, including a wide range of courses, guides and toolkits. One popular course is the practitioner workshop programme, designed to provide essential and current content reflecting the latest industry trends and technology. Ten half-day units provide a complete package of fleet management essentials, including the management of work-related road risk, safe and efficient fleet utilisation, the reduction of fuel use, and minimising fines and charges. To date, over 1,000 individuals have achieved FORS practitioner status. Other courses include one on how to progress from Silver to Gold, and also courses on safety and security, including how to prevent a vehicle being used by a potential terrorist as a weapon. The latter is being developed in association with the DfT. The range of toolkits and guides includes collision management, van and truck smart, anti-idling, congestion, vehicle safety equipment, drivers’ hours, and driver management.  There are also classroom and e-learning courses for both managers and drivers.

FORS also has around 80 ‘affinity partners’ offering a range of services and membership discounts, including insurance, licence checking, and management systems. For example, FORS Fleet Management System, powered by Fleet Check, delivers a comprehensive platform enabling complete driver, vehicle, and organisation management. Operators also have a duty-of-care by law to check their drivers’ competency and capability. In this case, the FORS driver licence checking service, delivered in partnership with Licence Bureau Ltd, provides preferential rates to members. A recent addition to the services offered is a FORS vehicle graphics service, providing members with low-cost access to its complete range of FORS ID graphics and warning signage. RGVA has been appointed as the exclusive supplier of FORS graphics and warning signage.  

Looking ahead, Hix emphasises that FORS aims to progress across three fronts in terms of, firstly, diversifying the scheme across sectors; secondly, geographically across the UK and beyond; and thirdly to improve the applicability of the standards to a wider range of companies. 

“The operators will determine our future,” he emphasises. “We already have over 4,900 of them, and we are really pleased to have their support.”