Driving for Better Business

Galaxy Insulation and Dry Lining supplies building materials including insulation and dry lining blocks from 14 locations across the UK. Wayne Allen, Group Logistics Manager, manages its 64 HGVs and 21 vans, which are deployed across its 14 depots. He explains the steps he took to raise Galaxy’s on-road safety game.

Heineken is the company behind some of the UK’s leading beer and cider brands, and owns 2,400 pubs and bars. Heineken UK won the Safety and Health Excellence Award 2023, sponsored by National Highways for Best Driver Risk Management Performance. Heineken’s Workspace and Safety Partner Reka Nagy tells us how the multi-branded beer, cider and pub company transformed its company car risk profile by emphasising positive reinforcement and driver engagement.

John Raymond Transport is a general haulage, warehousing and logistics provider running 120 HGVs, all plated to 44 tonnes and pulling curtainsided trailers.Based in Bridgend, South Wales, it has four depots of its own, and is part of the Nolan Group. JRT has been pursuing a risk management strategy for at least 20 years, using a variety of schemes and sources for its resources, including communications and messaging materials from Driving for Better Business. The company is asset based and its careful vehicle management allows it to run new or used trucks up to for two million km.

Metworks is the in-house residential maintenance company for housing association Metropolitan Thames Valley Homes. Transport manager, Joe Masters, oversees a fleet of 200 Citroën Relay and Vauxhall Movano vans, all of which are in the care of individual remote operatives. Read how Metworks reduced maintenance costs, fuel costs, insurance claims and speeding with support from the Driving for Better Business programme.

Miele GB distributes and sells its German parent company’s extensive range of domestic and commercial appliances, such as dishwashers, ovens, coffee machines and vacuum cleaners. It also has a professional division which services public buildings such as care homes, hotels and hospitals. Miele GB has circa 420 staff, including a car fleet which is used by sales teams, and a van fleet used by those who service and repair its products.

National Highways is responsible for building, operating and maintaining England’s motorways and major A-roads and is pursuing an ambitious net zero plan, including for its 1,300-vehicle fleet. We spoke with National fleet manager Martin Edgecox who explained how the government owned company is combining sustainability with the organisation’s need for resilience. The fleet services many different aspects of National Highways’ remit, including the 321 4x4s which allow traffic officers to clear roads rapidly and safely after incidents, and the large car fleet which enables its inspection teams to check every inch of its 4,300 miles of infrastructure.

Network Rail owns, repairs and develops the railway infrastructure in England, Scotland and Wales. Up to 13,000 vehicles (including lease vehicles) support its management of 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals and level crossings as well as 20 of the country’s largest stations. The vehicles range from cars to HGVs. 7,000 of these are LCVs designed to transport railway engineers and tools, and 400 are HGVs. Network Rail has recently refocused its road risk management strategy for its c9,700 strong fleet, including signing up with Driving for Better Business. Head of corporate safety Simon Morgan gives us an interim report on its progress.

Platform Housing Group has 47,000 social housing properties. Its subsidiary, Platform Housing Ltd runs 500 LCVs to allow employed tradespeople to maintain these properties. “When our operatives are behind the wheel, they are drivers, not engineers or carpenters or electricians. They have to think of themselves as drivers first and foremost. And we need to make sure they are professional, safe and compliant drivers.” - Matthew Neale, Group Fleet Manager, Platform Housing Ltd

Speedy Services is the UK’s leading tool, equipment and plant hire services company, with specialist divisions including powered access, lifting, survey, rail and power. It supplies a wide range of equipment to major infrastructure, and construction projects, and to trade and retail customers through its nationwide service centre network and through concessions in a number of B&Q stores. With over 1,000 commercial vehicles, including 229 HGVs, the company runs an extensive internal logistics operation between its national distribution centre and its 180 trading locations, as well as providing equipment to third parties. Fleet manager Aaron Powell and Group Fleet Compliance Manager Gareth Jones tell us about their road safety journey.

Tarmac is the UK’s leading sustainable building materials and construction solutions business. Transport and Logistics is an essential part of the Tarmac business, from sourcing materials from quarries to production sites to delivering materials to customer construction sites. Tarmac operates a diverse HGV fleet UK wide, including a combination of tankers, rigid tippers and mixers, and mechanical moving floor articulated trailers. Together with telematics partner Masternaut, Tarmac created on online National Logistics Dashboard to improve collection, analysis and reporting of all data from the Tarmac fleet. The objective was to monitor productivity, safety and sustainability so as to improve fleet performance in these three key business areas.

TES 2000 is a railway infrastructure and construction company. It runs 140 LCVs, mostly two-seater vans, which are used purely for driver transport. In April 2020 Mick Kiely became the first professional fleet manager the company had ever had. He tells us how he drove down incident rates and substantially reduced the company’s fleet costs.

WJ Group is one of the UK’s leading road safety and highway maintenance businesses. It specialises in delivering road markings, road studs, high friction and coloured safety surfacing, retexturing, crack and joint sealing, industrial surface preparation, marine surface coatings, TASCAR, CCTV, and stopped vehicle detection, as well as other Intelligent Traffic Solutions services and products.