Europe, UK: The European Transport Training Association Award, the EuroTra Safety and Innovation Award sponsored by Volvo Truck Sweden is given in recognition of an outstanding effort by an organization, which has made a diligent effort to improve safety within the European road transport and logistics industry. This year's award has gone to UK based fuel distributor Suckling Transport for the Haulier's consistent policy of pursuing improvements in this area in a section of the industry where safety is paramount.
Suckling's award-winning process began back in 2009 with the inception of a new skills development program. Through the formation of a small team responsible for skills development to standards of driver performance rivaled by just a handful of small and medium sized enterprises, Suckling Transport produced a targeted program worthy of industry recognition.
Its innovative combination of a skills builder program, and specialized intervention training, particularly impressed EuroTra's panel of industry experts which includes the expertise of the Freight Transport Association (FTA) which is responsible for the research, management, administration and development of the Pan-European award.
EuroTra is made up of 22 leading training organizations in 14 countries all over Europe. The focus is on the exchange of best practice values and jointly working on European projects with the aim of developing and training human resources, enhancing the image of the transport and logistics, stimulating of the development and implementation of innovative training methods and tools and generally promoting road safety across the industry.
James Tillyer, president of EuroTra, says: "I'm delighted that the award panel recognized the significant efforts made by Suckling Transport to improve the safety culture within its driver workforce. This pragmatic approach has clearly paid dividends, and it leads the way as a model that most European transport companies could apply within their own environment. The core value of the award is enhancing safety through new and innovative ways of thinking, and the skills builder program and intervention training fits perfectly with this value."
Suckling's use of driver performance data to identify the specific training requirements of its 150+ drivers, along with specialist training for six in-house trainer/drivers were key to the company's success and upon receiving the award Peter Larner, MD of Suckling Transport, says:
"Safety has been the top priority since Suckling Transport began to specialize in the distribution of fuel 25 years ago. Significant sales growth has now produced a company that delivers nearly two billion liters of inflammable liquid in the UK each year. So, safety is an integral part of the business. But, in a sector dominated by multi-national logistics providers, an SME like Suckling Transport needs to stand out. And what better way to differentiate itself than through an innovative approach to road safety."
The key is to make training work for you. Our use of telematics data to highlight areas of concern has informed our training requirements. The benefits are abundantly clear from subsequent improvements to our accident frequency and severity performance, with the added bonus being a significant reduction in our insurance premiums."
