JWS News Bulletin Issue 54 -Spring Edition - April 2010

Contents

Top Ten Hit for the Perfect Performers & Be Observant

A record ten employees scored a maximum 100% in the 2009 Suckling Transport Driver of the Year Awards.  The order of merit and distribution of awards are determined by the agreed tie-break mechanism of number of shifts worked. 

 

However, in recognition of their fine achievement, the Directors have agreed to ensure that each of the ‘perfect performers’ receives an award.

The new Driver of the Year is Michael James (top left), who works on the Shell contract at Pembroke.  Second and third places went to Aberdeen-based drivers. 

 

Garry Walker and Neil Smith were two of the four Aberdeen employees to receive an award which, for such a small location, is remarkable.  The other winners from this operating centre, also with 100% were Derek McGlashan and Mark Lyons, who shared the Scottish Regional Winner’s title.

Other Regional Winners were Andrew Griffiths (Hythe), Ray Blackmore (Pembroke), Phillip Rowland (Pembroke) and Phil Gallagher (Plymouth) who shared the South West and Wales Regional Award, with all four scoring 100%.  

 

Scott Margetts, who works on the Company’s ConocoPhillips contract at Coryton, won the South East and Midlands Award and his colleague Stefan Adams (left) was the ConocoPhillips contract Driver of the Year.  Colin Bickley (Plymouth) claimed the Shell Contract Driver of the Year.

Not for the first time, Jason Sheeley (right) claimed the Petroplus contract Driver of the Year and Gregor McLeod (top right), who is based at Grangemouth, became the TankShare Driver of the Year.

 

The top three drivers win £300, £200 and £150 respectively.  Regional Winners win £125 each and Contract award winners receive £100 each.

The average score of 94.80 was the highest since the competition began in 1996.  The award-winning drivers shared prize money of £1,925.

Be Observant

 

There will be a slight change to the Suckling Transport Driver of the Year Award competition in 2010.  In the event of a tie break, the number of safety observation cards (near miss and potential incident reports) will be taken into account and the driver who has submitted the most will win.  If the number of these cards is equal, the result will be determined by the number of shifts worked with the highest number of shifts taking the prize.  So please keep those Safety Observation cards coming in.

Company-wide Safety Sprint

The 1mKm Challenge teams have the chance to win extra prizes in our Company-wide safety sprint starting today.

 

Any team (excluding the International teams) who remain incident-free between 1st April and 30th June 2010 will receive a donation of £100 to their selected charity.  One of the winning teams will then be selected randomly to receive a larger donation and individual prizes for team members

 

The draw will be made by one of our guests at the Company’s annual Race Day at Worcester Racecourse on 30th June.  Traditionally our guests raise money for charity on that day and this year they will be supporting the charity of the successful team.  Last year we raised £873.73 for the road safety charity Brake.  This year, Suckling Transport will match the amount raised by our guests, so the winning charity could receive £2,000.

 

The special safety sprint will, hopefully, give some of our smaller teams the opportunity to raise money for their chosen charity, which is why it is not available to the International teams.  Good luck.

Best of the Best

Managing Director, Peter Larner, addressed the Brake Best of the Best Safety Conference in Birmingham last month and praised the performance of his drivers.

 

Speaking about the Company’s Zero Incident Project, Peter said: “93% of our workforce achieved zero last year.  In the previous 10 years the most months we had with no incidents whatsoever was two.  Last year there were seven months without a crash in them. 

 

After 5 years with a frequency figure hovering around six crashes per 1 million kms, we moved, in one year, to below three”.

 

The European Transport Safety Council has asked Peter to speak on the subject of driver training at their annual meeting in Brussels in May.

 

Suckling Transport was the subject of an ETSC PRAISE (Preventing Road Accidents and Injuries for the Safety of Employees) report in February.

 

You can read the report by logging on to:   www.etsc.eu/documents/PRAISE%20Fact%20Sheet%202.pdf

XTRA Mile Award on Jet

Congratulations to two of our ConocoPhillips contract drivers Peter Collins and Kelvin Healey, who both won Xtra Mile Awards earlier this year.

Both Peter and Kelvin were heroes of the long spell of bad weather at the turn of the year.  Kelvin took control of a difficult situation at Desborough Park, where vehicles had been abandoned in the snow.  Peter stopped decorating his lounge to come to the rescue of two Jet sites needing a delivery.

 

Kelvin and Peter will enjoy meals with their partners as a reward for going that Xtra Mile.

The Professionals

Praise for our team of drivers at Avonmouth, from two different sources, makes them the Suckling Transport Team of the Quarter.

 

The Avonmouth drivers have been loading at Westerleigh terminal for 18 months.  The Terminal Manager there, Daniel Brain described the team as the most professional and well-mannered group of drivers he has dealt with.  “During the whole period of their lifting product there, I cannot remember a single negative incident involving them”, Daniel added.

 

Similar praise was received from Dealer site operator Justin Taylor who passed his comments onto John Henley, Territory Manager for Shell.  Justin was impressed with our Avonmouth drivers, and especially with the professionalism they showed over the period of bad weather.  He was impressed with the attitude and determination of the drivers to keep him in stock with fuel.

 

The Avonmouth team is also top of the 1mKm Challenge League table with 690,000 incident free kms and are hopefully just a few months from reaching the target.

 

We are happy to pass on the compliments of Justin at Shell and Daniel at Murco to our Avonmouth drivers, who are our Team of the Quarter.

 

Well done!

Focus Groups are Go

Staff members have formed 27 Focus Groups with the aim of achieving the Company’s Key Performance Indicator targets in 2010.

 

The size of the group’s range from 4 to 8 members.  Some groups work on a specific customer KPI and some groups work on cross-contract targets, such as crossovers, spillages and vehicle accidents.

 

A typical cross-contract Focus Group is the one working on Fuel Efficiency.  Focus Group Captain Jess Clewley has already met with his team to start working on improvements to fuel consumption.  Other members of the group are Fleet Engineer Dan Bauckham, Regional Manager Andrew Eckton and Assistant Transport Manager in Scotland Alasdair Ewing.

 

Groups that successfully achieve their targets for 2010 will receive bonus payments in 2011.  Good luck to everyone.

 

RoSPA Awards

A record 93% of drivers received RoSPA Safe Driving Award certificates for 2009.

 

The high success rate was reflected in the Company’s accident frequency and severity Key Performance Indicators.

ConocoPhillips contract drivers Steve Gibbins and Phil Strachan, and Petroplus Marketing contract driver Jason Sheeley led the way with 9, 8 and 7 consecutive years safe driving respectively.

Safety Observation Cards

New Safety Observation cards will be introduced soon to replace the old Near Miss and Potential Incident Report (PIR) Card.

 

At the recent Brake Conference, Peter Larner emphasized the importance of these cards.  “As we get closer to zero incidents” he said, “we become more dependent on Safety Observations by drivers.  I ask that all drivers recognize the importance of identifying risks and report them through the new cards”.

 

“When we achieve zero we will be entirely dependant on Safety Observation Cards” he added.

1mKm Challenge league tables

International Teams:

                                                      KMS

Wales                                       752,548

England                            469,479

Scotland                          273,699

 

Operating Centre Teams:

Avonmouth                             690,411

Cardiff                                    517,808

Plymouth                           345,205

Pembroke                               234,740

Grangemouth (Shell)           221,918

Coryton                                   206,575

Hythe                                       195,205

Westerleigh (Petroplus)      138,082

Management                         136,019

Aberdeen                             92,055

Grangemouth (T/Share)        90,959

West London                        88,493

Westerleigh (Jet)                    12,822

The 5-question Interview

Sarah Andrews our Health and Safety Assistant took the 5-question interview this time round.

 

What did you do before joining Suckling’s?

After University I was temping as a warehouse administrator. It was not something I enjoyed.

 

What was the worst job you ever had?

I worked in a kennels.  I enjoyed it, but the pay was awful, and I got bitten by dogs several times.

 

What was the last CD you brought?

30 Seconds to Mars – their first album. After seeing them at a gig recently.

 

What was your most memorable day?

When I received a phone call telling me that I could have the keys to my new flat, then about an hour later I got another phone call telling me I had got a job at Suckling Transport.  It was a very positive forward moving day.

 

Where was the best holiday you ever had?

I went to Kenya for a month to work for a charity. I discovered I could give a good girly scream when required, on account of the Godzilla of a spider found in the dirty washing.

  

Can you suggest an employee who should face the 5 question interview?

Other News...

New Employees

Five new people joined the Company over recent months.  Welcome to Scott Muir, Gordon Rennie and Scott Traynor in Aberdeen.  Willie Donaldson in Grangemouth and finally Angela Stevens at Head Office who joined Nikki Pacey’s team in Human Resources.

ConocoPhillips drivers' reap Safety Reward

33 ConocoPhillips contract drivers received safety bonuses worth £58,000 in January, with 8 drivers receiving the maximum £2,020 each.  Well done!

 

Toolbox Talks

The dates for Q1: 2010 Driver Safety Talks are shown below.

 

SHELL

Avonmouth              12th/15th April

Plymouth                 13th/14th April

Aberdeen                 25th/26th May

Grangemouth         11th/12th May

Cardiff                       10th/14th May

Pembroke                11th/12th May

Hythe                           4th/5th May

 

CONOCOPHILLIPS

Coryton                     7th April

West London           21st April

Westerleigh              5th May

 

PETROPLUS

Westerleigh             5th May

 

The main topics covered by the Q2 talks will be Safety Performance, Customer Care and Site Route Risk Assessments.

 

News Bulletin

The next edition of the News Bulletin will be 30th June 2010 to coincide with the Company race day.  Please let Sue Nicholas have any news items by early June 2010.

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