Women in Transport Podcast

Driving for Better Business
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A podcast aiming to help increase the representation of women in the transport sector

Episodes

  1. 03/30/2023

    Nina Day, Policy Advisor for the Health and Safety Executive

    Welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast celebrating women working in transport, fleet management, and road safety.  I’m delighted to have Nina Day, Policy Advisor for the Health and Safety Executive with me today. Nina, welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast. It’s great to have you on the call today.   Nina: It’s great to be here.   Anne-Marie: The Health and Safety Executive plays a crucial role in ensuring the safety of those in the workplace and your area of expertise is in road and workplace transport. What was your career route into this particular area?   Nina: You know, after nearly 23 years now I can still picture the job advert that got me applying to work for HSE. And I didn’t really know anything about HSE back then and I certainly wouldn’t have imagined my career developing the way that it has – but very much in a good way, I should say. When I first started in HSE I was carrying out incident investigations, so that was fatal and serious injury incidents in quite a wide-ranging number of sectors – manufacturing, construction, agriculture, offshore. I’d worked on a couple of incidents in the transport sector, but it wasn’t really something that was on my radar. And after about 6 years, I decided I wanted to get more involved in the research side of things. I asked for a project that I could work on, and I did have my eye on something else – and I remember being quite disappointed when I was given a project on HGV travellers instead, I think I was probably quite annoyed at the time! But I gritted my teeth and thought I’ll get through this, and then I’ll never think about an HGV again. And clearly, it didn’t work out like that. I think within about 2 weeks of starting that project I was just fascinated by the industry in general. And I still am. It’s such a critical industry sector for the country as a whole, and there are some absolutely incredible people working in it. A lot of technical innovation, a constant drive to do things better, and it’s just great to work with. So, it’s an industry that I’ve been very, very happy to work in for many years now. I moved into policy within HSE about 4 years ago, and that was a big change, but an exciting one. One of the best parts of my job is getting to work with HSE’s external partners, whether that’s industry groups or partners within government like DfT, the police, with National Highways… and I think having a non-policy background is actually quite helpful to me in some ways, because it’s a different perspective. And having that technical, scientific background can be really useful when it comes to talking about something like load security, which can be quite a complex topic. So, my career path to this point probably has been a little bit unusual, but I wouldn’t change anything about it.   Anne-Marie: Fantastic – and you’re quite right. Sometimes, looking at transport, it doesn’t seem like it’s a very interesting area or particularly wide-ranging. But actually, when you get into it, there is so much there. And you mentioned partnership – how important is partnership in getting things right in the workplace, or the driving for work area?   Nina: I think it is absolutely critical. I mean, certainly from HSE’s perspective, we are talking about an area where you have overlapping areas of legislation, because you have workplace safety, road safety… you have different regulators working in that same space. And it’s absolutely critical that we have an ongoing dialogue between us; that we work together closely. The engagement is also really important in terms of talking to industry and making sure it’s a constant two-way discussion about how things can work, how they can work better. It is one of the great things about the industry, working in transport, is that you have so many parties involved. It’s exciting. It’s fun.   Anne-Marie: Yeah. You’ve already mentioned some of the things you’ve been involved in, and load security is actually quite important – we don’t think of it so much and we’ve all seen things bouncing off of flat-bed trucks and stuff, because they haven’t been tied down particularly well. It’s important to understand how loads behave in on a moving vehicle, and it’s not just about driving with loads but also but also the process around loading them safely.  What are the most common causes and the most common vehicles involved in incidents with unsafe loads?   Nina: You’re absolutely right, load security is a really important issue. And it’s an issue that affects everybody. I think people often think “Oh, it’s only HGVs that we have to worry about”, but not at all. You can have issues in cars, in vans… it’s really important if you’re transporting goods on the road – whatever the vehicle, whatever the length of journey – are you managing that properly? Have you got a system in place to make sure that that load gets from A to B safely? I think it can seem very complicated to people sometimes – “Oh, there’s lots that I need to do”, but actually a couple of years ago I went back and looked at all the load shift incidents that I’d been involved and investigating over the years, and I made a shortlist of the causative factors. And it was very short. There is a very limited number of reasons why loads move. The good thing there, I think, is that they were very simple and straightforward reasons, so they could be quite easily fixed. Things like the load was unstable on the load bed when it was loaded – and it shouldn’t have been, it should have been stable. You can never make an unstable load safe. The load wasn’t secured properly, or at all in some cases, and it shifted during the journey – that could have been fixed by tying the load down. So, the most common causes of fatal and serious incidents that we see in transport generally – aside from load shift – are being struck by a moving vehicle, being struck by a moving or falling object, falling from a height, or slips, trips and falls on level ground. And you get those with load shift. Those are the key reasons why people have incidents. I think sometimes people assume that a load shift incident is just when something falls off the vehicle on the road, or falls out of the vehicle during unloading. But there are other types of incident as well. For example, a driver might climb up onto the load bed to deal with a load that has shifted during the journey, and then they fall off – that is quite a common type of incident. In a van, the driver or someone else might not realise how important the bulkhead between the driver and the cargo area is – it’s there to protect the driver in case the load moves forward. And it needs to be in reasonable condition, and the load behind it needs to be secured. I’ve seen vans where the bulkhead has been removed or it’s had sections cut out of it, or it’s been damaged and not repaired. And it can’t do the job it was designed to do – to protect the driver. So again, that’s another type of incident. One type of incident that I’ve seen quite a few times recently is items falling off the forks of a forklift truck, or something has been pushed across the load bed by the forklift during loading and unloading. And it’s fallen and struck somebody – the driver or another worker. Now, these things do happen. During loading and unloading, things do happen, and things do fall. But the key thing here is making sure there’s no one in that area, so if it falls you’ve just got product clean-up. It’s not going to be any more serious than that. If the driver doesn’t need to be there, if the driver isn’t supervising it and doesn’t need to be directly next to the vehicle, put them somewhere else. Give them somewhere safe to wait so that they’re not in the firing line. I think a really important point I want to make here is – I hear this a lot from people, they say “I’ve never had an incident, I’ve been working in this job for a long time, I’ve never had a problem” … I think back to my experience earlier on in my career investigating incidents across a lot of industry sectors. No one sets out to have an incident. No one gets up in the morning and thinks “Today, everything’s going to go wrong. That’s what I want to do with my day.”. And something can be unsafe for a very long time without a catastrophic event, until the day when it does go wrong. And it is such a common mistake that people make, they assume that because they’ve done this for a long time it will always be safe. And unfortunately it doesn’t always work out like that.   Anne-Marie: Yeah. And I think safety isn’t down to luck. Safety is down to people taking ownership and responsibility of what they need to do. Safety is never just luck. Those are really important things to focus on there.   Nina: Absolutely. And you can – I don’t like to use the phrase ‘get away with it’ – but it is, it’s luck, it’s gambling every day that things will be okay, but unfortunately luck can run out and it is, I think, quite difficult when you’re investigating an incident and you can see multiple points at which that could have been prevented. We can’t forget the fact that the end result of these serious incidents is that a family has been bereaved. A worker has been left with very serious injuries that may affect them for the rest of their life. And that could have been prevented. It is a difficult topic and I think it can be very hard for the operators, for other workers in those businesses, when there is something that could have been done and unfortunately it wasn’t at that point.   Anne-Marie: Yeah. It’s interesting. We’re going to move on to talk a bit about dangerous goods and abnormal loads. The approach should be exactly the same for anything we’re doing with transport

  2. 02/14/2023

    Rebecca Morris - Road Casualty Reduction, Marketing and PR Specialist

    https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/podcast/episode/women-in-transport/rebecca-morris/    Welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast celebrating women working in transport, fleet management, and road safety.  I’m delighted to have Rebecca Morris, road casualty reduction, marketing and PR specialist, with me today.   Transcript: Anne-Marie: Welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast celebrating women working in transport, fleet management, and road safety.  I’m delighted to have Rebecca Morris, road casualty reduction, marketing and PR specialist, with me today.   Rebecca, welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast. I’m really pleased you’re here with us today. Now, I’ve got fond memories of working with you in road safety partnerships, supporting them across the UK. And as well… remember visiting Moldova? To support the development of their road safety partnership? So we’ve got a bit of road safety history between us. You’ve been in road safety marketing and public relations for over 18 years – how did your career start?   Rebecca: Hi – thanks so much for having me. It’s great to see you Anne-Marie, it’s been a long, long time and we do have a lot of history as you’ve said, in road casualty reduction. So yeah, I’ve been in road safety marketing and PR now for the best part of two decades. I was a journalist – that’s how I started my career – and then I started working at the Derby Safety Camera Partnership, back in 2004, and that’s where my road safety career began. And I’ve not looked back, and I don’t intend to go anywhere else, because suddenly I had a real purpose. I was writing about something that’s so important. And it’s been quite a journey over the last two decades, it’s changed a lot. So, yeah, it’s great to be here!   Anne-Marie: You’re right, things have changed in road safety over those two decades so much. And when we first met, you were working for Road Safety Support – they provide a range of services to road safety professionals in the UK and abroad. It’s a key means of support for road safety partnerships, so how vital was your communications role for the road safety professionals?   Rebecca: Yeah, so, I actually still work with Road Safety Support as a consultant. I was employed by them for 16 years – a wonderful time, working with the company. A very useful, worthwhile operation that was set up when the safety camera partnerships had changed. They became road safety partnerships. The Department for Transport was no longer at the helm influencing things that were going on within the partnerships – the responsibility was handed over to those partnerships to go it alone really, and Road Safety Support was set up back then in 2007 to support them through that. So my role was really created with the company and yeah, until the end of last year I was an employee. But that amount of time speaks for itself really. It’s a fantastic role to do, and supporting the partnerships with their day to day communications and casualty reduction marketing activities, and also of course promoting Road Safety Support, making sure we were known in the UK and overseas.   Anne-Marie: Thanks. So, you’ve moved on now a little bit and you’re now with RoadPeace. It’s the national charity for road crash casualties and their families in the UK. And it’s a really vital area of support – tell us a little bit about the organisation and your role there.   Rebecca: Yeah, RoadPeace is a very special organisation. I’ve been aware obviously of RoadPeace for the whole time I’ve been in road safety because obviously you’re aware of the charities that are out there, you’re aware of these things. But it’s only in the last few years that I’ve really appreciated what they do because I was fortunate, really, to begin supporting them, almost on a secondment basis. Road Safety Support very kindly donated my time as a marketing specialist to support the Andy Cox Challenge, as it was called back then, back in 2021 when this challenge was set up. It was a coming together of police forces, raising money, and raising awareness of road danger, and road harm. And it was raising money for RoadPeace. And now it’s evolved, it’s become the RoadPeace Challenge, it’s a big part of my role. But it was then that I really discovered what RoadPeace does, and I met so many wonderful people who have so sadly been affected by road crashes, either as a victim themselves or as a family member. And it’s really humbling, because we all talk about road crashes every day as road safety professionals but to actually be with those people who you’re talking about when you talk about those numbers and stats is really quite chilling. I always thought I appreciated it and I knew the real problem out there, but it wasn’t until I began working with RoadPeace that I really understood, and had the realisation that my experience in marketing and communications could be used in something as important as telling the stories of those people who had been affected by road crashes. And hopefully helping to change behaviour out there; hopefully, to get some campaigns out there which will help people to think differently. To use the roads differently. And hopefully, everybody will see it as their problem, and not just something the police should be sorting out. Or ‘that’s not my issue, I’m a good driver’, or ‘I’m a safe road user, I don’t need to worry, it’s the other people out there’. And I think if we all start to take responsibility, that can make a huge difference out there.   Anne-Marie: That’s a really important point you’ve mentioned. So, we often now talk about a shared responsibility, between those who design, build and manage the road networks, and also those who use them. We have a responsibility as road users to make sure that [??? 06:30] human error – we’re all guilty of getting things wrong, but we should go out with the thought in mind that we’re not going to do any harm because we’re going to do everything that we can to keep ourselves safe, and then keep others safe as well. The behaviour that we have on the roads is so important, and sometimes I think because people don’t see the devastating impact of crashes, they don’t realise how important their behaviour on the road actually is.   Rebecca: No, and that’s the point I think with my role at RoadPeace. It’s a newly created role – Communications and Partnerships Lead – and it’s engaging closely with stakeholders, police forces, local authorities and safer road partnerships, which is very close to my background, and I know a lot of people in that area. But it’s putting that story across. Trying to get people to see in different ways. There are lots of things we’ve done over the years to try and put across these messages. We’ve got so much more we need to do – we need to understand people more. That is what is missing, for me. There are some partnerships, local authorities, forces who are going above and beyond to do wonderful things to prevent road death and injury. But a lot of them are working within their very limited resources. What we need to do, in the UK, is a huge study into people’s behaviour and thinking. We need to know what it is that really makes people do what they do. And we need to break them down into segments. We need to know who those groups of people are that we’re targeting so we can design our marketing campaigns around specific types of road user based around what that road user thinks, and what works. Because again, I really want to plough my efforts into raising awareness around the devastation, and letting people see just how road crashes, and the actions of people every day – they didn’t mean to have a crash, they didn’t mean to do this or that – but they did, and sadly this is happening, and 5 people are dying every day on our roads. And more than 60 are being seriously injured. And hundreds are being physically or mentally affected every day. Which is terrible, and that fact alone – we need to raise awareness of that. We need people to know that. Because I don’t think people really know the risks. It’s become… we get in our cars, we get on our bikes. We have to go to school. We have to walk the kids to school. We have to get to work. We have to do this… we’re so busy. We have to do everything, don’t we? And we don’t get in the car and think, we’re about to drive a machine that’s capable of killing someone. ‘I must drive this carefully, because this machine could actually kill somebody’. We don’t think like that. So we need to know how to start getting people to think like that. We don’t want to terrify people, we don’t want people to think they shouldn’t leave the house, of course there’s got to be a balance. But at the moment, I don’t think people realise the risks they and their families face every single day when they leave their homes.   Anne-Marie: Yeah. It’s really interesting – some years ago, I saw a piece of graffiti in a town centre, and it said, ‘What you see depends on where you stand’. And if you’ve only ever been stopped by the police and given a ticket, or even a caution or warning – you’ll see it from one perspective. But if you’ve been involved in a collision, or you’ve had family or friends who have been hurt or just had a damage-only collision, which can be just as scary or just as frightening, then you’ll see it from a very different perspective. And from my own perspective, I had a life-threatening motorcycle crash. And that led me to working in road safety – because I didn’t want anybody else to go through what I’d gone through. The physically injuries healed, and I’ve learned to live with a certain amount of pain, one leg shorter than the other. I have difficulties

  3. 01/16/2023

    Lorna McAtear - Fleet Manager, National Grid

    https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/podcast/episode/women-in-transport/lorna-mcatear/   Useful Links National Grid https://www.nationalgrid.com/   Transcript DfBB Women in Transport Podcast Annie: Welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast celebrating women working in transport, fleet management, and road safety. Delighted that with me today is Lorna McAtear, who is the Fleet Manager for National Grid. Lorna, a really warm welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast. Now, whenever we hear the title ‘Fleet Manager’, it conjures up phrases like planning, managing, coordinating drivers, vehicles, procurement, utilisation, and then there’s maintenance and repair. A whole host of things. But, what does a normal week look like for you? Is there a ‘normal week’?   Lorna: Great question – no, I don’t think there is a normal week. So, even if I just take today as an example, I’ve gone from company car orders, through to consultation papers, through to reporting for various things out there that we’ve signed up to, your EV100s and everything else… I’ve gone into what’s next on our Responsible Business Charter, through to strategic direction and planning for the next couple of years, and I’m reading through CVs, because I’ve got a current vacancy at the moment. So, there is no normal week, and it really does depend on when the phone rings, and what the query is on the other side of it.   Annie: Excellent. Well, your knowledge around fleet management is phenomenal. And in particular, telematics. Where does the learning on telematics in particular come from? Was it on the job? Or was it somewhere special that you went to get that kind of knowledge?   Lorna: So, I didn’t fall into fleet in your traditional way that a lot of people do. In fact, I’m not sure if there is a traditional way of falling into fleet, you kind of end up there, one way or another. I used to be an IT Project Manager, so actually all of my background and early career was data systems, coding… I didn’t quite program but I kind of got there. So a lot of my knowledge was already in that digital space. So I picked up telemetry projects. What I had to do was look at some carbon reduction stuff. I was kind of filling a gap in terms of projects I’d got, and they said ‘oh, we’ve given some money over here to fleet, go and see what they’re up to and how they’re spending it for us’. And it was telemetry and carbon reduction. So, I literally got involved that way around. And, because of my understanding of how computers work – for want of a better description – it made it so much easier. I was one of the first at that point in time that went with a one-box solution, instead of the two-box solutions that were out there at that point in time. And I remember going away to a session with my colleague that I kind of revered – they were up there on this pedestal – and we got to the end of this meeting and on data and language in vehicles and black boxes. And at the end of it, he asked me if I understood everything that was going on – and I went ‘yeah, everything, why?’. He went ‘I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about’. You suddenly realise that what you’ve got is a different skillset – and it’s just as valid. Even now, I get asked how I got into fleet, and how do you get there from IT. And it’s like… over half of a car is computing now. It’s actually a logical step when you think about it.   Annie: Well absolutely. And that’s a really interesting point – so, at the moment, there’s some really focused discussions about electric vehicles, the pros and cons… and they’re also things that businesses need to consider when changing their fleet, and looking at electric vehicles and other systems that are on cars and vans nowadays. So what are your thoughts on how this change can be managed, with all this technology that’s around?   Lorna: It’s an interesting one, because with that, I guess I’ve got that project management skillset that’s inherently there now – so you look at all of it very differently. You look at where the legislation is coming down. You look at what’s going to happen to you next. I guess I’m always in the ‘what’s next?’ space. So, with that, I’m always questions ‘what have I got today?’, ‘what do I need tomorrow?’, and ‘how do I get there?’. It’s putting that planning into it, and understanding what the barriers are that people are going to have to overcome, and how you move through each of those. Is it a transition, and you’ve got a handful of people that you need to deal with? Is it something you’ve got to do immediately, because actually your company is one of those that wants to promote this as a product themselves? So, you need to understand what each company does, what’s driving it forward. And therefore you can get in on that messaging. And once you understand that yourself, and how your fleets are used, it makes it easier for you to talk to all the other people in the company, to make sure you’re all heading in the same direction. And that’s the key thing – it’s getting in the right direction.   Annie: Yeah, and you’ve mentioned about talking to others in the company, so… National Grid – correct me if I’m wrong – I think it’s one the world’s largest publicly listed utility companies? And operates around 20,000 vehicles, I think I read, in a mixed fleet.   Lorna: Yes, there’s about 10,000 vehicles over in the US, and again the same over here now that we’ve bought the Western Power – and that’s part of it now. So we’ve got the distribution, as well as the transmission business. So yeah, quite a large mixed fleet.   Annie: And ensuring safety and compliance standards are being met in something that large – firstly, it’s a huge priority, and must be quite difficult to manage. So, how crucial is the internal collaboration to achieve that?   Lorna: Oh it’s absolutely crucial. Some things are easier – so we’ve got some unionised areas as well of that business. So some things are easier in terms of, when you think of O Licences and what you need to do for those heavier vehicles, it’s actually quite clear-cut. It’s black and white – you either follow the rule, or you don’t. So, that makes those discussions really easy.   It’s when you’re in those calmer, more emotive side of things that make things just that little bit more of a challenge. And everyone has a different opinion as well – we all drive, so everybody has an opinion of how you should manage a car fleet. And it’s working out, then, how you interact with all those business units, how you interact with the safety teams. Because, as a utility, safety is absolutely critical to us for all sorts of other reasons – we’re dealing with high-voltage stuff all the time. So making sure of that… it’s almost inherent in our DNA, that we look at what we do, when we do it, when it comes to our vehicles as well. So it’s having that transcend all the way through your business. Safety and compliance are absolutely key for us. It was a real problem during Covid as well, when we were trying to put new vehicles out there – so getting the electric cars out – when you’ve got a different technology and you couldn’t do your usual on-the-drive training.   Annie: Yeah. We touched on safety earlier, and vehicles come with a range of safety systems. So, how beneficial are these systems in reducing the risk for the National Grid for their people that drive?   Lorna: You have to think of safety systems as a tool and a guide. That’s one of the things I’m very keen to get through to people. They’re a guide for you as the driver, they’re a prompt. And safety systems therefore are absolutely critical – they’re needed out there. When you’ve got a challenge with drivers is that some vehicles now have got them and they’re slightly more aggressive out there. How do you educate your drivers that ‘that lane departure does this for this reason, but you can override it if you’ve got to move out beyond that…’? There are all sorts of things that you need to understand what you can do and how you can do it. I think there are some challenges with some of those systems, if I’m being brutally honest. And as much as I’m an advocate for them, there are some bits that I think ‘that might just be a little bit too aggressive…’. So, when your sensors get dirty on the vehicles, for example, other shadows play in, and then your vehicle will anchor up. And if you’re not prepared for it, and you’re slow manoeuvring – reversing into your driveway for example… that anchoring up might actually jar your wrist on the steering wheel. So it’s having a look at things in a very different way, and just making sure your drivers are comfortable with their vehicles – because ultimately, they’re the ones in control of it, they’re the ones that take that risk. It’s their responsibility.   Annie: Yeah, and do you know what – I actually hadn’t thought of that angle, about keeping the sensors clean and tidy. You’d think that would be a natural thing, but you’re quite right – I mean, my parking sensors probably haven’t been cleaned in a million years. Luckily, I don’t need them to park – although some would disagree if they could see my parking! But, with the safety systems, you’ve mentioned something really important there about educating the drivers. And I don’t think there’s enough education and information out there for drivers to understand the safety systems they have available to them, and actually how they need to work with them. Because these systems, they don’t do it for you, they’re there to assist the driver. Where do people get that information?   Lorna: So, we try where we can to impart that. One of the

  4. 12/15/2022

    Laura Thomas – Director, Consul-T

    https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/podcast/episode/women-in-transport/laura-thomas/ Useful Links Consul-T www.consul-t.co.uk Transcript DfBB Women in Transport Podcast Annie: Welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast celebrating women working in transport, fleet management, and road safety. And today I’m very pleased to introduce Laura Thomas, not only the Director of Consul-T, but also an award-winning leading lawyer, who has advised the government on road safety, has worked for the HSE, and also as a Deputy Traffic Commissioner. Laura, welcome to our podcast. Now, I’ve given a brief introduction to the work you’ve done, but actually your experience is really broad. Can you tell us a little more about it? Laura: Thanks Anne-Marie. So you’re right, I have not had perhaps the straightest of career paths, but I think the winding ones are probably more interesting. So, I am a barrister – I started life as a criminal barrister, in chambers in London. I then joined a law firm, where I was for 12 years as a barrister and then partner. And I founded their regulatory and Health and Safety corporate defence team. And now, having spent a couple of years working in industry in leadership roles – in oil and gas, in civil engineering – I now work with businesses in two different strands. Firstly, as Director of Consul-T – and Consul-T offers business consultancy services, mainly in the Health and Safety field, but also regulatory, ESG, risk and compliance. And I also do legal work – still as a self-employed barrister at the Chambers of Laura Thomas, where I focus predominantly on Health and Safety and transport work. Annie: Excellent, thank you. I can just see now all the work that you’re involved in there. And you’ve got a unique insight into the road safety aspect of that. What led you into getting involved in the road safety and transport side of things? Laura: Yes, it’s an interesting one. And if I’m honest, I think I kind of fell into road transport and safety. I know a lot of people say it, but the transport world found me. I think early in my career I remember going to a talk by the inspirational and wonderful Carole Walker, who is the former CEO of Hermes. And I remember she said exactly the same. She said nobody really leaves school thinking they want to work in transport and road safety, but it kind of sucks you in. And I love that about it, really. There’s always so much to learn in the transport and road safety world. You can never say you’ve learnt it all. I was then really fortunate to sit on the board of Logistics UK with Carole. And she was a huge inspiration to me. I think in my world as a criminal barrister I saw the really tragic side of road safety. I dealt with many horrendous fatalities and serious incidents on the roads, both from a health and safety perspective and a road traffic law perspective. And I wanted to understand more. So, I had the opportunity and was invited onto the Road Haulage Association Panel, and I started to do legal inquiries for the Traffic Commissioner. Although I have to admit, Anne-Marie, tachographs did and still do puzzle me! I was then appointed Deputy Traffic Commissioner and I held that role for two and a half years. My goodness, I learnt so much about road safety and the transport world sitting as Deputy Traffic Commissioner. I met some wonderful people, and it led also to some really interesting work. So I then went on to advise the government, on their high-profile Cycle Safety Review. So I think – also if I take into account my private life, riding horses on roads – I think I have experience with transport in every single form. And still to this day, I’m engaged and enthused by it all the time because it’s one area that we’ve really got to get right. Annie: Absolutely. You mentioned that you had your eyes opened when you just started working in road safety, especially looking at the legal side of things, the horrendous things that happen on the road. And I think one of the things that we don’t realise is that because we use the roads in some shape or form every day, we don’t see the risks. Because most of us will get through the day without seeing something horrendous happening. So in our brains, we get the idea that the roads aren’t a dangerous place. But most collisions are avoidable. And I think this is why people in road safety are so passionate – because there is so much we can do to reduce toll on the road, it’s within our gift to do that. There’s a lot of human error and involvement in road safety. But actually, there’s a lot that we can do to prevent these things happening. As Deputy Traffic Commissioner, how did you engage with stakeholders and the industry to improve that and have real accountability? Laura: Yes, well, interestingly as you know, the Deputy Traffic Commissioners work with large-goods vehicles and passenger vehicles. Which, as you’ll appreciate, I used to say to drivers when I did driver conduct hearings – you are driving a lethal weapon on the roads. And you have to understand that we put a lot of trust in your professionalism in doing that. Some people found that quite a shocking thing for me to say, but I genuinely believed it because I have seen, as you say, what can happen when it all goes wrong. As regards to engaging with stakeholders and driving improvements, I think it’s mainly through continually banging the drum. It was about speaking to people and reminding people. It’s not about shocking people and scare tactics, it’s actually about education and engagement. So I used to attend a lot of Road Haulage Association seminars – firstly as a transport lawyer, and then as a Deputy Traffic Commissioner on behalf of the full-time Traffic Commissioners. And we talked to operators about what the burning issues were. And I found the key was actually to keep it simple. Because a lot of this, as you said Anne-Marie, is actually quite simple. Whether you’re driving vans, driving your car, whether you’re on a bike, a horse, or you’re behind the wheel of a large-goods vehicle. It’s all about thinking about what you’re doing. And you mentioned there, Anne-Marie, about risk – and I think we all become a little too complacent about risk. It’s just about remembering what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. And if you’re in a business it’s about continually reminding your people. About what’s expected of them, and most importantly why – and I don’t mean scaremongering and talking of tragedy all the time, I just mean why? What is it, why are we asking you to do that? Because if you’re running a business that has any involvement with transport – which most do – you’re going to be led by your people. And they are the ones out there on the road. We used to say it a lot to hauliers – once your drivers are out on the road, that is it. They are responsible for the vehicle they are driving, and how can you be sure that they are taking that responsibility the way you want them to? That they’re taking it seriously? That they’re not using mobile phones, they’re not over their driving hours limits, that they haven’t had a heavy night the night before and have decided to still take the keys to the vehicle. And it’s about instilling that people-centred culture in your business. I used to have a phrase when I worked as a lawyer at Burkett’s, which was ‘say what you do, do what you say, and then have the paperwork to prove it’. Because I found that a lot of businesses were very paper-heavy. But actually that paper’s only ever so good if it’s followed in practice. So I always used to say don’t start with a piece of paper; let the piece of paper be the outcome of your risk assessment, of your thought process, of what you’re telling your people to do and why they need to do it. And as I said, that’s why I think it’s key to understand human behaviour, and really address the ‘why?’. Why are we doing things this way? Why is that not working for you? How can we help you to make it better? I read a great quote the other day, and I loved it. It said ‘you don’t change culture through emails and memos. You change it through relationships one conversation at a time’. And that really spoke to me. I thought ‘yes – spot on’. I’ve seen a lot of businesses, and there’s an awful lot of reliance on paper. On emails. And on memos. And thinking that that equals communication. And in my experience, it doesn’t. Annie: You’re so right, it’s interesting that one of the things that I could remove from my job to make it a little more efficient is emails, because we’re bombarded with them. And when you get so many, it’s easy just to give them a cursory look and not actually take them seriously. Sometimes there’s nothing that stands out particularly in an email that you get. And especially if it’s part of a mandatory thing that you have to do... you feel like it’s a ticking-the-box exercise and you go along with that. And I think that communication – especially a top-down communication – on the importance of something, on the values of the organisation, and why we do it this way here, is so important. And that personal touch can make all the difference, I think you’re absolutely right. And having been responsible as a Deputy Traffic Commissioner, you will have seen – as you’ve explained – many different scenarios. What were the most common ones, were they simple ones? Complacency? ‘I couldn’t be bothered’? What were the things you saw that could have been put right quite simply? Laura: I think it is quite a simple one actually. It’s essentially organisations not doing what they said they would. Particularly in operator licensing. Operators sign up to undertakings, and those undertakings are all essentially predicated towards road safety. And many operators simply don’t real

  5. 11/15/2022

    Meryl Roberts – Contract and Performance Team Leader, National Highways

    https://womenintransport.podbean.com/e/meryl-roberts   Transcript DfBB Women in Transport Podcast Sharon: Welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast celebrating women working in transport, fleet management, and road safety. Today I am delighted to welcome Meryl Robert who is the contract and performance team leader at National Highways. Can you share with us your journey so far, working in the highways sector? Meryl: Yes, I’ve been privileged in joining the Department for Transport many years ago – National Highways was not a thing at that time. I’ve been able to take on lots of different roles in the civil service which has given me quite a broad experience. Though that I managed to transfer to the earlier version of National Highways, and I’ve worked on contract teams, I’ve delivered scehmes, I’ve delivered finance, commercial and procurement, I purchased land. I worked through to national operations where I set up the customer contact centre and that’s lead to the delivering operational services. I built my experience over many years and with many diverse teams. Sharon: I’ve been lucky enough to visit Quinton recently where the National and Regional Traffic centres – NTOC and ROC as they are known – so I’ve seen first-hand how busy your customer services teams are. How do you support the customers who use the road networks? Meryl: As you say there are quite a few different teams based at the Quinton office. We’re the National Traffic Operations Centre, and we look after the whole of the network, it’s one of the few offices in NH that covers the whole of the strategic network. We have the customer contact centre there that works 24/7 & 365 days answering front line services, and we also have the Strategic Traffic Operations which means we have operators who set strategic signs. The National Incident Liaison Officers keep their eyes and ears open for critical incidents that impact the network. We are very interested in the impact of an incident and looking at the information around that incident, so it leaves the regional office to tactically manage the incident and mobilise the traffic officers. Our offices can then look at what information can we give to customers? What signs can we set that give the customer the opportunity to make key decisions about their journey. They can either take a break or take an alternative route but it’s so that the information is far enough away from the incident for them to make those key decisions. The data we have is particular to the centre really. It’s collected from assets on the network. We receive it in the centre, and it’s processed and verified and that happens every minute, so the data comes into the office, goes out to America, comes back again and that is happening once a minute so it’s real time information. Then that is disseminated to businesses – not only National Highways – it enables other companies to use that data to provide traffic information services and in-car services which people probably don’t realise that data is shared so far afield, and it's free. Sharon: That’s amazing, it would be fair to say that National Highways – a lot of people think they’re responsible for building and maintain the motorways but from what you’ve said they do a lot more than that? Meryl: Yes – we build, operate, and maintain 4300 miles of motorways and major A roads and there are over 4million journeys travelled every day and the data we collect for the network and from mobile devices means that we have that Realtime information about what’s happening. It’s shared with providers that users will know about on their phones and in car systems and we also work with communities and stakeholders – to deliver a social value and a community benefit to leave a lasting legacy if you like. This leads on to supporting key messages about pollution affecting towns and villages, reminding road users about important safety messages, so it’s an extension of that engineering capability. We also work closely with organisations who are planning events that attract thousands of visitors. More recently we were active in giving information to the Department of Transport when they were planning the complex detail with Operation London Bridge. We support lots of sporting event, activities that take place at Wembley or at the NEC, Commonwealth Games, so we’re able to provide signing, and useful info to direct people to carparking and to let them know what’s happening in and around that area. We also help the strategic signing and timing of roadworks so that the project teams can vary the times so that the roadworks aren’t suddenly going on the network at the same time as someone leaving a very busy football event for example. Sharon: It’s so interesting. It shows how much interaction and engagement is happening with communities that many of us wouldn’t think about. Meryl: We’re not just building roads and causing problems – it’s actually being very proactive and how we can help these people on the network. Sharon: The strategic road network is at the core of our national transport system. Its performance is important to the whole of the country. Meryl: Yes, the network links people to places, materials to manufacturers and goods to markets – it’s really important for lots of companies that have critical deadlines to deliver goods to supermarkets and it has an impact on how much they’re paid. If they are late delivering, they have to pay a forfeit for that so it’s important that we work with them and give the information so they can plan their journeys. A lot of the team in the National Centre work very closely with them so we can make sure when we are planning roadworks or something that might compromise the network that they are aware of it, and we have actually consulted some of these companies directly so they can use this information. Part of the current contract that I manage is now working on how we can deliver that data in a simple way so they can use it to help plan. They have to plan routes, the safety of their drivers and to ensure the perishable goods are delivered on time - and the network will also support people to travel to work on a daily basis which now is increased after COVID. Home deliveries and visiting friends and family holidays – it’s interesting to know that the network carries 34% of all traffic and 68% of that is freight. We move 3 times more people than the rail network, so it puts it into context how important the strategic road network is to the economy. Sharon: We also know National Highways likes to engage with their customers and et them involved in consultation and surveys Meryl: Yes, I joined that department many years ago and we didn’t think of road users as customers – we were engineering - but that has now changed, and our key imperatives include putting safety first for our customers. We work hard to ensure that not only do we engage with the community and the users of the network but that everyone who works at National Highways is able to understand and communicate what we do and why we do what we do. There are many ways in which we talk to our customers – different surveys and consultations that we use so that they feel they can have a say about what we are planning. We have customer insight services which underpin our customer service strategy. As you probably picked up, we have a diverse group of people who use the strategic road network and there’s a variety of ways that customers can get involved. The transport Focus that is one of our regulators have a strategic road user survey known as SRAS. It asks drivers about journeys they’ve taken in the last 4 weeks on our network. This reaches out to 21,000 customers each month. There are other more internal insights surveys called High View that compliment the SRAS survey but also asks people about their journey experience – it’s more detailed and more specific and flexible about the type oof journey they take. We have customer panels and freight panels, and they are used to explore and understand responses to perhaps different types of signs we’ve set. We try to react to customer feedback that we get and that’s often from Transport Focus. We vary our campaign messages and the type of signs that we set so we get specific feedback and of course we use social media for real time feedback on particular incidents. There are lots of other ways of us receiving feedback – correspondence, people telephone the contact centre, and then also audits are undertaken to support the projects that are happening and IPSIS MORI undertake independent assessments where we have particular areas where complaints are high. We can look at how that project is working and make changes to support some of the feedback we get. In real time it’s important that people contact us through the contact centre and they will either deal with the enquiry or direct it to the right part of National Highways. If it's something bespoke to a particular project... Sharon: I guess it’s really important to us that customers do contact us and give us their feedback and their thoughts and experiences so we can make a positive difference Meryl: Absolutely, and of course we have our web-based services on the website where they can use ECHO, and this is fed directly to the projects – and we do get ECHO feedback about our Traffic England website that is used for real time information. Sharon: One thing you mentioned earlier was engagement and language is important to National Highways – so why are road users referred to as customers? Meryl: Principally we connect the country by maintaining and improving the SRN and we provide real time information about the network and we do this for the people that use it, so it’s a subtle difference from having a customer that walks into a shop but actually these are the customers

  6. 10/14/2022

    Sadie Weston - Owner and Managing Director, Employ Recruitment

    Show Notes Sadie Weston established Employ Recruitment in 2005. In this episode of the Women in Transport podcast she describes her journey of getting into recruitment and working in the logistics sector, and how she dedicated her career to changing the perception of HGV driver recruitment agencies through raising standards. We hear how she has realised her vision, creating a successful driving agency with 100% compliance at its core, and what she's learned along the way. https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/podcast/episode/women-in-transport/sadie-weston/   Useful Links Employ Recruitment https://www.employrecruitment.co.uk/ Driver Recruitment Software https://www.driverrecruitmentsoftware.com/   Transcript DfBB Women in Transport Podcast Sharon: Welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast celebrating women working in transport, fleet management, and road safety. Driving and riding for work presents one of the biggest risks to business and addressing those risks often involves fresh, new thinking. With me today is Sadie Weston who established Employ Recruitment in 2005. Sadie, lovely to see you again and thank for you taking the time to chat with us today. Tell us about your journey of getting into recruitment and working in the logistics sector. Sadie: I fell into a career into logistics before I even knew what it was. When I was 19, I started working for a specialist driving agency. Early on I saw first-hand the importance of compliance and safety following a major road traffic accident, so when I was about 21, I set off with all my new learnings and set up my own driving agency, Employ Recruitment, which specialises in the supply of logistics staff -mainly HGV drivers on a temporary basis to haulage companies. Because of my attention to detail and desire for continuous improvement in standards I realised quite quickly that many driving agencies were not compliant and did not fulfil their obligations in terms of driver’s hours and working time directive despite all the legislation in place. I identified a need for change, and I wanted to do things differently. In 2005 I dedicated my career to change the perception of HGV driver recruitment agencies through raising standards. My vision back then was to create a successful driving agency with 100% compliance at its core and that’s been achieved in subsequent years. When we began that was quite a challenge – we relied on a lot of manual processes to achieve the vision., I invited in all the legislative bodies I could think of to check our manual processes until they were sufficient. Culture was also really important from a young age and for the colleagues, the drivers, and the clients. We now have very well-established brand promises that focus around honesty, humility, and respect for everybody and what I found to be my greatest challenge when working in Employ was finding a piece of software that managed the process of driving recruitment from start to end with a focus on compliance. It didn’t exist so I started to use a piece of software that met that requirement as closely as possible – then I went onto buy the company which is now a business in its own right know as DRS driver Recruitment software, a SAS platform that streamlines and automates the process of HGV driver recruitment end to end. The introduction of DRS into Employ eliminated the majority of manual processes, and it streamlined the business, achieving a 25% reduction in overheads, through automating the resourcing, the planning, compliance, finance and management information driving agencies rely so heavily on being accurate. So going back to my earlier vision to improve the perception of logistics recruitment throughout the UK and seeing the results in Employ, in 2019 I went to offer DRS to other driving agencies and by that point I had a tried and tested proven solution which was Employ and DRS enabled Employ to double, reduce overheads and remain 100% compliant in real time which improves road safety and protects our drivers and customers. Aside the businesses and in a bid to bring agencies and clients together for the greater good, I’m also the divisional director TEAM and hold a seat on the Logistics UK government group for driving agency excellence, and within these diverse roles I believe I’ve created an environment for collaboration to share best practice with other driving agencies – moving away from that stigma of keeping information under lock and key, and then later, with that collaboration we’ve been able to go to operators in a bid to align agency standards and margins and you’d be lucky to have a conversation with me where margins don’t crop up. They’re important. I understand that agencies work hard in a reactive role to meet the client requirements to ensure standards are aligned - agencies need a margin to reinvest to the same level as hauliers do in training staff systems and accreditations and so on. Since neutral vends entered the market place hauliers saw the opportunity to standardise low margins, in my opinion that only served to halt the progress of many driving agencies, and I would like to see an improvement in how we all work together so that the compliant agencies who are doing their very best are rewarded by being offered more work first and it no longer comes down to low margins, power or rebates. Employ have been lucky enough to maintain these margins and benefited by being able to continually invest, and as a result some of the most recent initiatives this year, the introduction of crisis cover which provides access to transport lawyers in the event of blue light incidents, and e-learning for HGV drivers, a roadskills online driver benefits package, and a 12 month HGV driver specific wellbeing campaign, and I think that brings you right up to date Sharon. Sharon: Our Driving for Better Business programme encourages and supports operators to look at what they do by evaluating their practices and taking the necessary steps to enhance their performance. You mentioned TEAM – can you share how it’s supported and benefited you as an employer but also those other members? Sadie: TEAM stands for The Employment Agency Movement, and it’s split into different sectors. Speaking about the driving sector, it’s a really easy environment for driving agencies to come together and we have guest speakers, training specific to driving agencies, in fact I’m organising an event for the 3rd November to bring 50 driving agencies together to focus on what to outsource so we’ve got various suppliers tp pitch their product in 15 minutes and focus on what value that will give back to the driving agency – time, financial – so that agencies can focus on what they need to do best, which is really customer service to the drivers and the customers. They don’t need to get bogged down with admin processes. As well as the collaboration which is the best I have seen within the driver agency sector, there’s also shared resources, things like terms & conditions, there’s access to endless training and there’s a community. TEAM feels like a family in the industry – we’ve got a WhatsApp group so we can share problems, and someone is always there to help, and I would recommend any driving agency to consider joining. Sharon: I know you’re always pushing the boundaries for improvement at Employ. Tell us about how ISO9001 and Investors in People have helped you. Sadie: Over the years, I have signed Employ up for most things and we learnt an awful lot from Investors in People on culture, trust probably being the main thing – how to look after our people and in return we found that they bring a lot back to the business. Something I am prepared to touch on later is things like I employ a lot of working mums, so we wanted to look at the things that were suitable for working mums. Things like contributions to childcare, working hours and work from home which are not common in our industry which is male dominated as you know. To touch on ISO9001 that meant that we got a library of policies and procedures that informed our people how to run the business s in a consistent way. Sharon: You touched on working mums, Over the years supporting and inspiring other women whether staff, drivers or clients is close to your heart. Why is that so important to you? Sadie: I think that comes down to I would love to see more women in logistics. I stumbled on this industry, and I’m constantly impressed by the women I meet in the industry. I worked with a lot of men in the early days and some of those men taught me how not to do things and some inspired me, and I’ve had the privilege of working with many great women, one of whom is a coach I use, Claire Barnett, from Synergy who focus on coaching on organisational development and that put culture at the top of the list for me. I also work with some excellent women these days – Leslie O’Brian of New Aura and Charlotte Le Maire – both are very inspiring – they’re on the same mission that I am on. They want to see improvement for HGV drivers and road safety. That’s really where I’d like to see the whole industry going. Women – logistics is the perfect industry for women. Women have a very detailed understanding into their subject matter and tend to remember quite a lot, to the pain of our partners from time to time, and we are able to provide tangible data for improvement. I would love to see more women in the industry. I’ve employed around 40 women in my time at Employ and at DRS, often in their first job in transport and we’ve had a high commitment to their training from great companies like the RAC and Logistics UK, wellbeing coaches, and now a lot of those women have stayed in the industry which is really important, and gone on to hold really important roles in the industry. Sharon: You fell into this industry by accident. How can we showcase and promote the div

  7. 09/22/2022

    Sarah Bell - Traffic Commissioner for London and the South East

    Show Notes Some areas of fleet management are highly regulated but that doesn’t always mean that these fleets are managed well. Today, I’m thrilled to be joined by Sarah Bell, Traffic Commissioner for London and the South East, to discuss some the common failures seen regularly at operator level and what it looks like to be a good operator. https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/podcast/episode/women-in-transport/sarah-bell/   Useful Links Information about Traffic Commissioners https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/traffic-commissioners Traffic Commissioner's Twitter https://twitter.com/TrafficCommsGB Sign up to receive news alerts from the Traffic Commissioners https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKOTC/subscriber/new   Transcript DfBB Women in Transport Podcast Anne-Marie: Welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast celebrating women working in transport, fleet management, and road safety. Now, some areas of fleet management are highly regulated but that doesn’t always mean that these fleets are managed well. Today, I’m thrilled to be joined by Sarah Bell, Traffic Commissioner for London and the South East. Sarah, welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast. You’ve had over 20 years of working with the transport industry and now as a Traffic Commissioner. How did your career develop? Sarah: First of all Anne-Marie thank you for inviting me, following Jo Shiner – difficult footsteps to follow but I’ll do my best. My career... developed is probably too sophisticated a word for it. It flowed, really. I qualified as a solicitor in 1993, with a regional practice down on the South Coast. I stayed with them until 1995, but then I wanted to get into commercial litigation but there were no positions there, so I went elsewhere. And bizarrely I ended up doing maritime litigation as well as commercial litigation. So, for example, marine accident investigations, helping their clients weave their way through the interviews, etcetera. And then also defending health and safety executive prosecutions for their clients. And so it was regulatory as well as litigation – which is not something which I had originally signed up to. But then the opportunity came for me to take that back to the firm where I had originally trained, which was lovely because I hadn’t actually particularly wanted to leave in the first place, it was just that there wasn’t the sort of role that I had wanted. And we developed a wider regulatory practice. They already were RHA panel solicitors, so I started doing that work with them – so representing operators, transport managers and drivers before my predecessors as traffic commissioners, and also in the criminal courts. But at the same time, I moved from defending HSE prosecutions which I had done at my previous firm, to actually prosecuting as a solicitor agent for the Health and Safety Executive. So I have – as they say - played on both sides of the fence. I’m a prosecutor and a defence solicitor by expertise. But then in 2006 I was approached by the recruitment consultants that were in charge of recruiting the new traffic commissioner for the West of England. And they said, “why haven’t you applied?” and I said I didn’t know that Phillip was retiring – which was a big faux pas as he wasn’t retiring, just moving London and the South East. And so that’s how I ended up being a traffic commissioner. Anne-Marie: Fantastic, so your experience – on both sides of the fence – has been quite broad. And you mentioned, you joined the West of England as Traffic Commissioner and now you’re the responsible for the South East. What are the responsibilities of a traffic commissioner? Sarah: They are wide and varied. First of all we don’t sort out anyone’s parking tickets, unfortunately, which is what most people think if they don’t know about regulation of commercial vehicles. What we actually do is we regulate the bus, coach and haulage industry, and their vocational drivers. There are eight traffic commissioners regionally, there’s one traffic commissioner for Scotland – Claire Gilmour, one traffic commissioner for Wales – that’s Victoria Davies. And then the other regions. And, we look at commercial vehicle businesses and their drivers – and it is from cradle to grave. So, if you want to operate a one-man or one-lady scaffold business, or if you want to be the next Eddie Stobart, you need an operator’s licence. And that licence tells you where you can operate from, how many vehicles you can operate, how many trailers you can operate. And you have to tell us what your safety regime is going to be. Similarly with vocational drivers. Whether it’s lorries, or it’s buses and coaches – from your very first provisional right through to your retirement – whether you are able to hold that entitlement and whether you keep it depends on your driving and your approach to safety, and we regulate all of that as well. Anne-Marie: Excellent. So your role is not to go searching for wrongdoing, but to arbitrate on allegations when they are reported. How are most inquiries reported, are there specific triggers? Sarah: So the undertakings on the operator’s licence are all focused on the roadworthiness of vehicles, and the drivers being safe. Because, as we know, a lorry in the wrong hands is a lethal weapon. And, there are a lot of systems that we expect them to have in place, so obviously the lorries and coaches have their tachographs in... that’s not enough. We expect there to be regular downloading within the maximum timescales under the legislations. But not only downloaded – we expect it to be analysed. Have there been drivers’ hour infringements? Has there be driving off card? They have to the systems in place – likewise with the undertakings in relations to maintenance. They have to tell us how frequently they are going to have their vehicles inspected. How frequently they are going to have their trailers inspected. Who is going to be doing those inspections? And so, the inquiries flow from the success or failures of those systems. And most of the reports we receive are from the DVSA - Driving Vehicle Standards Agency – I refer to them as the Department for Transport’s commercial vehicle enforcement officers. And also, but less so, the police. With the police it depends more on the traffic area; some have more commercial vehicle police units than others. Obviously, I’m incredibly lucky in London and the South East because I have the Met, and the City of London, and I see a huge number of referrals from them. We also get referrals from the Health and Safety Executive, and the Environment Agency, because our regime is safety focused. And it’s not just about how do you run your transport, it’s what’s your approach to safety? So if there’s been a health and safety... not even prosecution... even if it’s an enforcement notice and it’s not been complied with. Or if there’s an Environment Agency prosecution. Then, we are told about those and the operator can be called in, with the transport manager, to consider their good repute. Anne-Marie: Excellent thank you – that’s really insightful and I’ve learnt some things that I didn’t know there. So, what are the common failures at any operator level that you see regularly, and is this through ignorance, inexperience or lack of care? What do you see on a regular basis? Sarah: Well I’ve been doing this since 2007. And unfortunately, I keep seeing the same stories, just different people. Ignorance... ignorance is interesting. Because, when you sign up for a licence, the form is online now, and it’s about 18 pages. So it’s not like how it used to be, when you’d go to the tax desk. You are making a whole heap of promises that you know what you’re doing, and that you already will have the systems in place from day one. And there’s an appeal court case called MGM Haulage and Recycling 2012/030... not that I use it very much. And that said that operators, transport managers and applicants are deemed to know all the advice and guidance in the public domain. And it’s vast. So there’s all the Senior Traffic Commissioner statutory documents. There’s all the DVSA documents – such as the Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness, Careless Talk Costs Lives, all the drivers’ hours... so ignorance is probably limited. Not as limited as it should be, but limited. In experience, we have what we call a gatekeeper role about who we let in, who gets a licence. And that’s not just about “have they got convictions” etc., it is about the individual, the company, and how are they going to get it right first time. So you can be inexperienced, but you still have to have the systems in place to make sure that the business is experienced. And one of our favourite sayings also is ‘never mistake experience for expertise’. Because sometimes it’s the experience that has got in the way, because they’re still doing things the way they’ve always been done. Lack of care when managing the health and safety of vehicles and their drivers - absolutely that’s the key. That is what we see the most. There may be a system in place, but it’s not been reviewed. There may be a system in place, but it has fallen to the wayside because there’s been a change in personnel. And the worst one of all, where commercial need is put ahead of compliance. And those are the themes, really. Anne-Marie: Thank you, Sarah. I’d like to talk a little bit about the van sector as well – because vans, as you know, are not regulated in the same way. There are over 600,000 trucks on our roads, 75,000 buses. But this is dwarfed by the van sector and that has been increasing in past years. There are more than 4.8m vans on our roads now. Do you think they should be managed in the same way as trucks, and would regulation of vans be a useful step? Sarah: It’s interestin

  8. 08/26/2022

    Sharon Kindleysides - Chief Executive, CILT (UK)

    Show Notes "The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in the UK is the home of the profession – so people who are working in the industry of transport and logistics and supply chains at any level have got somewhere they can come to be part of the community... we can support them through their career development.We like to think that anyone can come to us and ask us any question, and we’ll give them good, neutral advice based on the facts." Sharon Kindleysides, Chief Executive Officer of CILT(UK) https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/podcast/episode/women-in-transport/sharon-kindleysides/ Useful Links CILT https://ciltuk.org.uk/ Generation Logistics https://generationlogistics.org/ Upcoming Events The Transport & Logistics Safety Forum Annual Conference, 8th November 2022 Event summary - CILT(UK) (ciltuk.org.uk) The Women in Logistics Conference, 13th October 2022 Event summary - CILT(UK) (ciltuk.org.uk) CILT programmes to support Learners: Aspire is the Charitable arm of the CILT which supports people with training cost to progress within the profession: CILT(UK) > Aspire (ciltuk.org.uk) Novus which is a programme to support those wishing to undertake University Studies is here: Homepage - Novus   Transcript DfBB Women in Transport Podcast Anne-Marie: Welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast celebrating women working in transport, fleet management, and road safety.  The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport was first established in 1919.  Their vision is “a transport, logistics, operations and supply chain profession, recognised and celebrated for its quality, expertise, and value”, and I’m delighted to welcome their Chief Executive, Sharon Kindleysides. Sharon, welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast.  Can you tell me more about the purpose of the Institute? Sharon: Yes, hello Anne-Marie, thanks for inviting me. I think the institute is the home of the profession – so people who are working in the industry of transport and logistics and supply chains at any level have got somewhere they can come to be part of the community. We are a chartered body so people that wish to go that way we can support them through their career development. We also offer training for individuals and organisations, and advice. We like to think that anyone can come to us and ask us any question, and we’ll give them good, neutral advice based on the facts. We have an amazing learning centres so if anyone’s doing any research they’re welcome to come and see that too. Anne-Marie: Fantastic. How big is the institute, how many members do you have? Sharon: Well, we’ve got roughly 13,000 members in the UK and we’ve got about 170 corporate members, where we work closely with them - but we mainly hear from the individuals. And they range from people at the start of their career right to the top fellows who’ve been doing great service. And I wrote a letter last week to somebody who has been a member for over 50 years. Anne-Marie: Wow, so there’s a real depth and breadth to the membership then. Sharon: Absolutely, and it’s just so valuable, particularly for our younger members. If they’ve ever got a question, there’s bound to be someone in the organisation who is senior and can offer advice. And I think that’s what’s really good when we go to places like a conference. People learn from each other. Anne-Marie: Brilliant. Now, your appointment as CEO of CILT is quite recent and you’ve had over 19 years leadership experience in the sector.  What do you see as the priorities for the sector at this point? Sharon: Yes, as you said I have been in the industry for some time now. I took over the job roughly three months ago. I think it’s quite a key time for the profession. I’ve noticed it’s pretty much every morning there’s a news article that’s something to do with the supply chain or transport or driving or the fuel crisis – various things along those lines. So at the moment we’ve really got a stage to talk about ourselves. The key priority for me is making more people aware of the profession. Approximately 4% of all jobs in the UK are in logistics. We’ve got young people who just got exam results and are wondering what to do with their careers. My priority is to say look – this is an amazing, vibrant, passionate industry with jobs in all manner of things you’ve maybe never heard of, so come and find out what we do. So I want to make the profession, or the sector, attractive and appealing – so that when somebody is thinking about what job to do, they don’t turn their nose up and say “oh, I don’t want to do that”. I want them to think “wow, that’s truly amazing, I can go and be part of something massive”. And without our industry and things being transported, there’d be nothing in the shops. We’d pretty much be sitting here naked. So it’s so intrinsic to everything we do in the country – so I want everyone to feel as excited about it as I am really.   Anne-Marie: That’s really interesting – I didn’t realise just how much of our daily life involves someone working in transport and the logistics sector. We need, now more than ever, to grow this sector. How is Generation Logistics encouraging people into the sector? Sharon: We’re doing a lot of things. We offer a mentoring scheme. We’ve actually got a couple of organisations we support who encourage people right at the start of their career, who might not be able to pay their own way through a qualification, to actually go to university or do a more practical course. So we’re really trying to get in at the start of these things. We’ve got an organisation called Think Logistics who help support schools. So we’re trying to make people aware of the whole industry and the scope. So when they become a student, or when they’re an apprentice, we offer them training and professional development. We just offer them a place where they can come and find out more, and choose their own career path. They know we’re going to support them all the way through. And, we offer mentoring. So if anyone comes to us and wants to mentor or be a mentoree, we try to link them up.   Anne-Marie: That sounds excellent. It’s a good thing to support young people. I’m glad I’m not young anymore because I’m not sure which way I’d go to get a job! But this sounds like a brilliant scheme to encourage more people into the sector itself. You mentioned technology – it’s advancing considerably, and we’ve seen significant developments in autonomous vehicles. What are the challenges this brings, and how far away are we from truly, fully autonomous vehicles? Sharon: I mean, there are fully autonomous vehicles in trials around the world. The technology itself is very well developed. One of the views I have of it is that it’s a bit like a fashion show. People go to Paris and see the most amazing outfits, and then possibly a colour, or a design, or a belt they’ve seen makes its way into the supermarket or a high street store. And then with autonomous vehicles, every new version of a car that comes out has learnt something from autonomous vehicles – from headlines that dip and raise themselves, to sensors that tell you if you’re about to leave the lane. So I think we’re seeing cars get a lot more intelligent. There’s certainly a number of applications that I think will be really beneficial. Somebody once said that the first time you get in an autonomous vehicle, it’s not going to be 5 o’clock going around the M25. It’s going to be in a constrained environment. I think what’s going to be really valuable is things like out-of-hours and remote public transport – for example, to help shift workers get to and from work – maybe there’s an autonomous vehicle that takes you to an out-of-town car park, where you could park your car to avoid congestion. Maybe it’s around a hospital or a university campus. I think the first place we’ll really see autonomous vehicles in full blown running and being useful is going to be in these limited environments. I think we’ll also see them in agriculture, and even maritime, where there is again this constrained environment – there’s nothing to stop, say, a completely autonomous combine harvester harvesting a field. Or in a shunting yard of hauliers, just moving trailer units made for B to C. That could be fully autonomous. It’s going to be a long time before we see them in the city centre. But what they can bring is this technology, particularly the safety features, into normal cars. So that the cars that are on the normal road at the moment have got these safety features built in. That’s always been one of the key selling points of autonomous vehicles – the number of accidents due to human error – because if you can reduce the human interaction, then you can also reduce the number of accidents. I think it will be slow progress, but there’ll be certainly applications where we’ll see fully autonomous vehicles a lot quicker than in other areas.   Anne-Marie: Thanks Sharon. That’s actually really useful, you’ve mentioned quite a few things there that I hadn’t considered. Especially the agricultural and maritime perspective. There are huge applications now. That’s fascinating. Moving on, there is also much discussion as well about Intelligent Transport Systems.  Can you explain what is meant by that and what are the benefits and downsides for road users? Sharon: I’ve always thought there’s a slightly bad choice of words there, because it suggests there are non-intelligent transport systems as well. Which we don’t mean at all. But for me, it’s applying data, and the use of data and technology, to the normal transport systems that we use day-in, day-out. And the most basic application that nobody really thinks about is that we’ve got traffic lights t

  9. 07/26/2022

    Jo Shiner - Chief Constable of Sussex Police

    Show notes "It’s really interesting that almost 6 people a day die on our roads in this country and yet there is not in my opinion a loud enough outcry around that. I find it completely unacceptable that here is that level of death, trauma and tragedy and all those families who live on without their loved one." Jo Shiner, Chief Constable of Sussex, and is the roads policing lead on the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) talks about her role and how collaboration is essential to the success of roads policing strategy.   https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/podcast/women-in-transport/jo-shiner/   Useful Links Sussex Police https://www.sussex.police.uk/ National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) https://www.npcc.police.uk/ OK9 - police dog welfare programme https://www.oscarkilo.org.uk/   Transcript DfBB Women in Transport Podcast: Jo Shiner - Chief Constable, Sussex Police Anne-Marie: Welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast celebrating women working in transport, fleet management, and road safety.  Driving and riding for work presents one of the biggest risks that businesses need to address.  Employers have a duty of care responsibility, and managing this risk requires employers to ensure the company must not do anything that puts their drivers or riders at risk and that the company’s work-related driving activities must not endanger other road users.  I’m delighted that Chief Constable Jo Shiner from Sussex Police is joining me today. Chief Constable Shiner, a very warm welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast.  Your policing career has spanned nearly three decades of public service.  What drew you to joining the police? CC Shiner: Truly it was to make a difference. I know a number of people say that, but it really was. Our family went through a really difficult experience when my father was killed when I was a teenager – on the roads – and I did talk about it to bring that lived experience to the roads policing portfolio. After that experience I knew I could probably make a difference and so policing was quite a natural choice for me. Anne-Marie: Thanks Jo. That’s really interesting. A lot of our passionate ways of dealing with issues comes from experience. You’ve served in three forces, Norfolk, Kent and now Sussex which are all quite distinct.  How important has collaboration and partnership been to keeping communities and people safe? CC Shiner: I’m a true believer that in order to make a difference we absolutely have to work together for the road policing strategy together because we all bring very different elements to that. Whether or not it’s road furniture, enforcing speed, education – whatever it is about making our roads safer, unless we work in collaboration and partnership then actually it would be virtually impossible to make our communities – particularly our roads and everyone who uses them – which is virtually everybody – to keep them safe. Anne-Marie: Within the National Police Chiefs’ Council, you currently hold the portfolio for Roads Policing.  The value of roads policing is considerable and often underrated and unappreciated?  How significant is the role in preventing harm? CC Shiner: It’s really interesting that almost 6 people day die on our roads in this country and yet there is not in my opinion a loud enough outcry around that. I find it completely unacceptable that there is that level of death, trauma and tragedy and all those families who live on without their loved one. Or those people have been significantly injured in those collisions and therefore their lives have changed forever - so this portfolio assists with trying to draw the attention to road policing, make sure it’s more amplified in terms of when people are thinking about our wider communities and also appreciate the role that every single person has in  making those roads safer and therefore reducing the number of people who are killed and seriously injured because everyone has a role in that. I’m a huge believer that people must take responsibility for their own actions – so either when they get behind the wheel of a vehicle, or a pedal cycle or a horse or when they are a pedestrian there is an incumbent responsibility to look after those people around us. To drive carefully, to keep an eye out when we are walking, to be road savvy when you’re cycling. That personal responsibility sits on everybody who uses the roads and if we all respect that and take that a bit more seriously I do think we can make our roads safer and that’s what we are trying to amplify within this portfolio. Anne-Marie: I absolutely agree, Jo from being involved in a life-threatening collision myself many years ago which was my route into road safety I can see the ripples of how it damages communities when just a single person is hurt or injured or killed d on the road – and we can do more working together and taking that responsibility for ourselves. I’d like to think about the traffic officers now that actually deal with the incidents.  What has been your experience in Roads Policing from time spent in the specialism to how the welfare of officers who have witnessed or had to deal with serious incidents is managed? CC Shiner: I think welfare generally and I’ll talk across policing but of course for every collision there are many more emergency services and people who are impacted by that. I think it has improved – do I think it’s good enough yet? Probably not. There isn’t level of appreciation of exactly what our emergency services and frontline workers see ad experience when they go to those collisions – sometimes those scenes can be absolutely traumatic. Because we’re seeing post covid a rise in the number of killed and seriously injured collisions, they are difficult to deal with, one of the main thrusts of our strategy is about making sure that we don’t forget those people who have to deal with this day in day out. One of my other national roles is as the ambassador for Oscar Kilo 9 wellbeing dogs. That’s a national policing charity all about wellbeing of our officers & front-line staff and other staff of course across policing. I’m really proud of what we have done around wellbeing dogs because that’s one small way when there are people who have experienced this trauma at an incident we will try and get wellbeing dogs to them very shortly after that because we know it actually helps to talk through what’s happened and it’s a real bonus of wellbeing, but we still have way to go with it Anne-Marie: All emergency services have to deal with traumatic events, and they are human beings, and they have the same feelings and concerns and have to deal with that after the event. The wellbeing dogs initiative sounds fantastic and I hope that gets expanded and if we can help in any way with this in Driving for Better Business please let us know as we’d be delighted to help with that. CC Shiner: It’s been expanded so most forces now have them and just in Sussex we have 17 or 18 now so quite a number and they don’t really cost us very much as they are people’s pets, so it links beautifully with the roads policing portfolio. I think one of the most heated challenges in terms of the trauma particularly for roads policing and family liaison officers is the trauma it gives to the families and loved ones of those who have died. We talk about that ‘knock on the door’ but for those officers to do that to share with a family that their loved has passed away is in itself very traumatic – and so it it’s important that we recognise exactly what we are asking  them to do alongside those teams who absolutely meticulously and forensically in order to get the families the answers they deserve, then investigate those scenes in terms of the wider investigation so we can make sure the coroner but most importantly the loved ones have some idea as to why it happened. Anne-Marie: Thanks Jo. With at least 1 in 3 injury collisions involves someone driving for work, employers have a critical role to play in the safety of drivers and riders.  What do you see as the current trends in the factors in road collisions and how can business and organisations help to reduce the risk on the road? CC Shiner: Employers definitely have that critical role. It comes back to that sense of responsibility and of course the lawful duty they have so it’s very important that corners are not cut, that vehicles their employees are using are safe, it’s really important particularly for delivery drivers and that huge economy that grew during COVID that people are being tempted to break speed limits or to drive dangerously in order they can deliver their work that their bosses are asking them to do – so that responsibility of making sure that both from the vehicle side but also what we are asking those people on the roads to do has critical importance. Employees can really influence that, making sure those vehicles are safe and as up to date as they can be in terms of safety features, but what we also know which is a challenge because the reality is the cost of living is increasing and one of my urges at the moment is to urge people not to cut corners and not to save money when it comes to the safety of their vehicles. It is an obvious place that may happen but by doing that it could cost you much more money and it could cost someone their life. Anne-Marie: Absolutely Jo. Thinking about the more regulated parts of road users, the commercial vehicles, the HGVs - it easy just to do what gets measured and I agree with your ethos about ‘don’t cut corners’ so even if it’s not being measured, if there’s something you can do to improve your safety  but it’s not looked at or checked it’s still important that you do it. Going back to the responsibility – we all have that responsibility as well as employers, the employees that

  10. 06/17/2022

    Ashlee Field - Road Safety and Partnerships Manager, DPDgroup

    Show notes Ashlee Field, DPD Group talks to us on how the road safety culture has been cascaded throughout the organisation - including the sharing of best practice by drivers with their peers. 'We like them to have a conversation with each other on how they’ve improved their driving styles based on telematics and their apps. They can look at what they are doing on the day, and we basically put them at the heart of anything we are implementing or new into DPD.' https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/podcast/women-in-transport/ashlee-field/   Transcript DfBB Women in Transport Podcast: Ashlee Field - Road Safety and Partnerships Manager, DPDgroup Anne-Marie: Welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast. In this series we’re celebrating women working in transport, fleet management, and road safety. Driving for work is one of the biggest risks to the business. With me today I’m very pleased to introduce Ashlee Field, Road Safety and Partnerships Manager, DPD group UK. Ashlee, welcome to the podcast. How did your passion for improving safety on the road come about? Ashlee: What a great question! Back in 2018 we were asked to provide support to a local school and being an expert organiser I took on the challenge. So, I organised the vehicles, the staff, the content and how we would promote road safety, and all the goodies we took with us. We engaged with over 500 children from reception to year 6 and that started my passion for road safety. Anne-Marie: When you went to the schools did the children really understand what you were telling them? Ashlee: Initially it was difficult – the reception age group was difficult. When you started to get year 1 the engagement increased. One of the things we noticed was that the teachers were flabbergasted to see a truck and trailer on site and they were interested in coming to find out about it. We took onboard the elements of blind spots and making sure you’re visible and standing in the right areas so the driver could see them. They really understood that. Yes, it’s difficult but actually some of what you are teaching them is something they already know, and it gives them an opportunity to see what it looks like from the cab as well. Anne-Marie: Yes, it’s so important to make it real and a brilliant approach you took there. Let’s talk about DPD. What’s the DPD approach to managing work related road risk. How do you monitor driver behaviour without it feeling like Big Brother? Ashlee: There are tons of ways you can look into driver behaviour. The most basic version is the digital tachygraph reader that tells you a lot of things on what might be going on with the drivers on the road. It will also give you potentials like if you have a conversation with that driver it can tell you that the route is not necessarily suitable based on the fact there’s road works or additional traffic or the times they hit it are not convenient because there are schools in the area – it’s worth having a conversation with the driver first and foremost. Some of what we do is data based like telematics, monitoring harsh braking, hash acceleration and fuel economy. Other things are in cab cameras – these show you things from the road view such as dash cam footage and you also get a view in the cab as well, so it’s a good way of looking at it. One of the things we are quite keen on is being open and honest with our drivers, so we encourage sharing of best practice with peers. We like them to have a conversation with each other on how they’ve improved their driving styles based on telematics and their apps. They can look at what they are doing on the day, and we basically put them at the heart of anything we are implementing or new into DPD. We are lucky at DPD that the drivers know we monitor their driving to improve their driving styles and it gives them better coping strategies on the road which gives us a better version of our Driver CPC and it means they are doing a smoother journey which is important to them. Anne-Marie: Brilliant. I like the idea of really involving the driver sin changing the overall behaviour and approach to driving – and sharing the practice is what we need to do more often. We know there’s been a rise in home deliveries & the additional demand this must6 place on companies must be huge. How does DPD handle the conflicting pressures of safety and timed deliveries. Ashlee: Home deliveries have skyrocketed. It’s been a very difficult 2 years and everybody across any version of delivery or collection has felt that. At DPD we have an exceptional planning team and stae of the art tech to plan routes and time deliveries effectively, so all of our routes are planned so that the driver has enough time to complete delivery or collection, have their legal breaks and complete any other tasks like refuelling or charging the vehicle. It is not always easy to plan for everything like accidents and additional traffic due to roadworks that have gone on longer than planned or events that are happening all disrupt everyone’s schedules. What we do is plan for the maximum amount of time for travel between delivery and collection points which means they have more time hopefully. In terms of back end when they have breaks, they have more time to sit down and relax before they go back on the road and then it plans for the typical traffic flow. If for example you look on Google maps it says your travel time – we always give the maximum suggested time for travel. I would always advocate you follow the traffic flow of the area and you’re aware of that. One of the last things we rely on is the drivers themselves. It’s their route, their area, they are well versed as to what is going on in their area and they will always know the best way to get through a situation - traffic or accident – so always go back to the drivers and have a conversation with them because they can tell you the best way around it. Anne-Marie: Great advice. The impact on actual customers is minimised as well – so customer service doesn’t go down in your opinion? Ashlee: Yes – it’s at the heart of what we do – the end point. Things like the app has enabled us to add more time needed to the end customer, so drivers know that the person needs more time to come to the door and things like that. The end customer needs to be aware that ‘look out your window, there’s a lot of traffic!’ Anne-Marie: Let’s talk about awards you’ve won. The corporate safety award from the Institute of Couriers and Road Safety in the Community Award as part of the Brake Fleet Safety Awards are just 2. What made the community award so special? Ashlee: They are fantastic awards and I’m exceptionally proud of them. It was my first year in road safety, so I was really proud of them. I think it’s important to give back to the community as a resident and as a worker. My job takes me across the UK, so I am going into different areas all the time, and I think it’s important to give back. We’ve got around 13,000 drivers delivering or collecting parcels around the UK over a 24 hour period which is massive. Most of these pass through our 5 hubs in the Midlands and 2 of the biggest hubs are in Leicestershire and until 2015 we didn’t have a huge presence in that area. I wanted to create a partnership with the community to let them know what we offer, what benefits we give to the local area, and given the recent influx of DPD vans and trucks, education in the local community on our vehicles was a top priority for me and raising awareness of road safety is always invaluable. Since 2019 we’ve engaged with over 5000 people across the UK – that’s just community side, not anything internal. We also have the community fund at DPD which enables any of our DPD people to request funding to support local charities and causes. Anne-Marie: Such a worthwhile thing to do. We talked about the work you do with schools and colleges. How does this benefit the students and their future employers? Ashlee: I am all over this. I engage in the future workforce aspect. I do my best to spend time with our future workforce, so I’ve signed up to be an ambassador for T Levels – have a look at the government website – basically it’s another route to post-16 studying, similar to an A Level or college course giving you additional on the job experience - about 40 days on the job. There are only about 11 routes, but they are looking to expand that in the future. I am also an enterprise advisor at a local school in the Leicestershire enterprise programme providing business support to the school on career guidance so I attend a virtual call or meeting or go into the school, and we look at ways they can improve their career guidance. From a business perspective it’s also how DPD can encourage other businesses to help the school with career guidance as well. I attend events at schools and colleges like mock interviews, speed networking relating heavily to STEM subjects which is a huge focus for anyone who works in logistics and transport so that’s another thing I try to do. For me, that gives the students practical experience of talking to a human being that works in this side of the environment, which also gives the students opportunities to explore avenues they haven’t explored before. We can showcase the other opportunities and career paths at DPD which I think is fantastic. Anne-Marie: How do you manage to do all of this within 24 hours a day?? You’re clearly passionate about road safety and you’re making differences where you’re working, so what benefits does DPD see from promoting road safety in the work you’ve done? Ashlee: Road safety benefits are subtle It’s one of those things that you have avoided an accident which you never knew you were going to have is the best way to put it. This is how I explain it to my senior management t

  11. 05/17/2022

    Astrid van der Burgt

    Show notes Driving for Better Business Women in Transport Podcast: Astrid Van Der Burgt, Holcim Group. In this podcast series we’re celebrating women working in transport, fleet management, and road safety and today I’m very pleased to introduce Astrid Van Der Burgt, Head of Road Safety at Holcim, who talks about the initiatives Holcim have in place to reduce road risk, as well as the success of the Women on Wheels project. https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/podcast/women-in-transport/astrid-van-der-burgt/ Useful links Astrid van der Burgt - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/astridvanderburgt/ Women on wheels in Nigeria https://www.holcim.com/who-we-are/our-stories/women-wheels-nigeria Women on wheels in Nigeria https://www.holcim.com/who-we-are/our-stories/women-wheels-nigeria Women on wheels in Uganda https://www.holcim.com/media/media-releases/uganda-women-wheels Women in Transport https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/women-in-transport/   Transcript DfBB Women in Transport Podcast: Astrid Van Der Burgt, Holcim Group Anne-Marie: Welcome to the Driving for Better Business podcast. In this series we’re celebrating women working in transport, fleet management, and road safety and today I’m very pleased to introduce Astrid Van Der Burgt, Head of Road Safety at Holcim. Astrid, welcome to the podcast. You have an interesting career history. How did you get into transport safety?   Astrid: Thanks so much for having me. I worked in logistics all my working life and married into logistics – this resulted me working as a transport manager, maintenance manager, customer service and also as a driver. This meant I learned what a difference safety awareness makes to drivers. If you give drivers the tools to make the right decision behind the wheel, this makes a difference to them – makes sure they go home to their families at the end of the working day. This gives me really a lot of job satisfaction. This mantra of giving drivers the tools to make the right decisions has been my guide all through my career.   Anne-Marie: You’ve talked about giving drivers the tools – what has worked well for you?   Astrid: Certainly, in Holcim we operate in such a diverse market, and we take it for granted in the UK and in Europe that people know how to drive a truck, but that is not always the case in other markets like Sub Saharan Africa or India so it’s been a 3 pronged approach. We train drivers to make sure they have the knowledge and the skills to operate the vehicle and tackle the road situations, we have telematics installed in vehicles so we can monitor driving behaviour, and then the most crucial point, we give feedback to the drivers. We talk to them – ‘okay you had harsh braking, speeding – what happened and how could you prevent this happening in the future?’ They have this awareness that they can have an influence on the outcome of their driving day.   Anne-Marie: Interesting – it’s not about catching people out and I think you’re right – that feedback bit is just about trying to raise their knowledge and understanding on the influence they have on that road space   Astrid: Absolutely, we celebrate successes as well. If a driver does well it’s recognised, and if a driver does exceptionally well it’s rewarded – driver of the month, driver of the year programme, with some financial rewards. Even a good student likes to hear they’re doing well, it’s not just pulling up those that are underperforming.   Anne-Marie: As well as creating job, opportunities, and growth, tell us about the Women on Wheels project.   Astrid: Yes, this project has been so interesting. It was very much an idea for sustainability and innovation, and we had an inaugural programme in Uganda to increase diversity in driver population. They had decided they wanted to operate their own fleet, and right from the beginning they said let’s create parity and diversity. It’s been a huge success. The aim is not just to influence country management teams, so they understand women are an option, but also to make it a global approach where we embed search, hire and retention of women drivers into our recruitment strategy Really, we are trying to fight the myth – there’s no reason why women shouldn’t be truck drivers. The days are over when trucks were unwieldy beasts to operate. We need to be aware there are still some challenges. There is safety and security – safe parking, rest houses, that we have ‘home at night’ trips, and in terms of emergencies so we know if there’s an adequate response time – and work/life balance. Flexibility for childcare, family commitments, and my personal number one is hygiene, decent bathrooms for women to use on the road. It is the logical way forward for us at Holcim. We have the programme in a number of countries, and we hope to double the number of female drivers by the end of the year. In Uganda they have moved to phase 2 – not just gender parity in their fleet but also with their major transport partners – having the same in their fleet. The business case is there – apart from the safety aspect – a 7% increase in kilometres without any violations such as speeding, harsh braking, but they have also seen 6% better fuel consumption 15% lower maintenance, 12% better turnaround times and the customers love it – they are requesting our female drivers because they know it will arrive on time and with a smile. Anne-Marie: Alongside Women on Wheels, partnership and collaboration is a big part of your role… Astrid: You can’t do yourselves – working with the experts has helped us, particularly in the Women on Wheels programme. We have to work with other organisations to build the credibility of the programme – the training schools, truck manufacturers, government bodies, NGOs to create this partnership. It makes it more sustainable when each party has a vested interest. In South Africa we work with a truck manufacturer and a training school. At the end of the driving training, they then receive business acumen training and we help them to set up business with favourable truck financing, they get a contract for a couple of years work to get their business started. All parties win – we have reliable transporters, the truck manufacturer wins, and the driving school gets more business, and the women themselves have all the tools for success. Anne-Marie: I love the idea that as well as creating jobs it is creating opportunities and growth and help for people all over in those countries. What are some of the personal stories? Astrid: There are so many – I love to hear them. It’s the best bit of my job. You receive messages from a son of a lady truck driver – ‘I saw your profile on Facebook it was my Mum that you spoke to and she loves to be a truck driver…’ but the two stories that stand out for me – in countries where you least expect a women to be a truck driver. In Kenya a lady had 3 children, one at university, one at secondary school and one at primary school. She was so proud to tell me she was independent and on her own raising her family – because of the consistent income from the truck driving job she was paying all their school fees. One of the female truck drivers in Uganda – she kept seeing this particular police officer who observed her nearly every day, eventually she was stopped and she expected it to be papers, insurance etc, but instead she was offered a basket with food, drinks by this police officer, because he had never seen a female truck driver in his life and he was really pleased to see it. Anne-Marie: Building resilience for those families – I love the way it’s changing perspectives. How do you think it’s been perceived in these communities? Astrid: I think it’s been positively because of the opportunities and growth its creating and the fact that it makes these women independent. We are now venturing into the Middle East and in one of the countries there they are looking at setting up the programme which would be the most incredible thing ever to have a Women on Wheels programme in that type of environment. ‘Women should be staying at home looking after the family’ – it’s changed – people are realising that is not the case anymore. Women can do this. Anne-Marie: Astrid if people want to learn know about Women in Wheels and Holcim where should they go? Astrid: We have a website Holcim.com and if you type in ‘women on wheels’ or Uganda you will find these stories and all the information is there. Of course, people can find me on LinkedIn and ping me a message and I’d be happy to share what we do and how we are structuring this. Anne-Marie: Astrid, thank-you so much and if you’re listening to this and want to know more about ‘Women in Transport’ visit the Driving for Better Business website – Drivingforbetterbusiness.com Useful links Astrid van der Burgt - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/astridvanderburgt/ Women on wheels in Nigeria https://www.holcim.com/who-we-are/our-stories/women-wheels-nigeria Women on wheels in Nigeria https://www.holcim.com/who-we-are/our-stories/women-wheels-nigeria Women on wheels in Uganda https://www.holcim.com/media/media-releases/uganda-women-wheels Women in Transport https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/women-in-transport/

  12. 03/07/2022

    Celebrating Women In Transport For International Women’s Day

    Show notes Driving for Better Business is marking International Women’s Day (8 March), launching a year of videos, podcasts and features, and teaming up with Women in Transport, a non-for-profit promotional, professional-development and support group. Women make up 47 per cent of the UK workforce yet remain underrepresented in the transport sector, accounting for only 20 per cent of workers. However, this is changing steadily, and women are represented at every level. Driving for Better Business is a National Highways programme led by Anne-Marie Penny*, Senior Road Safety Policy Adviser, who says: “This is a great opportunity to raise awareness of the thousands of women who work in this sector, from CEOs of large multinational corporates, national and local government officials, directors of influential safety charities, freelancers, apprentices and everything between. Transport – like all areas of life – benefits from a diverse range of influences to best serve everyone.” Through the Driving for Better Business programme, those organisations which collectively employ millions of staff who drive for work have access to a range of free tools and resources for employers, along with examples of good practice and strong leadership. Women in Transport provides a varied and lively events programme with access to thought leaders, senior stakeholders and professional trainers. As the Secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Group for women in transport, it is committed to working with the UK government to increase the representation of women in the transport sector. Sonya Byers, CEO of Women in Transport says: “We are delighted to be teaming up with the National Highways Driving for Better Business programme to celebrate women’s achievements in the transport and fleet industry over the coming year. With this year's International Women's Day theme of #BreaktheBias, we have a wonderful opportunity to raise the visibility of talent we have at every level of transport from women just starting their career to senior leaders - and to showcase the diversity of opportunity in the transport sector."   Transcript Becky: Hello and welcome to this interview to mark International Women’s Day in the world of transport.   I’m Becky Hadley and I work with some fantastic organisations in transport and road safety.   One of those is Driving for Better Business. It helps companies reduce the risk their employees face when using the roads for work.   Another great organisation is Women in Transport. This is a not-for-profit member’s group that offers professional development and support and now has nearly 1000 members.   And the good news is that Driving for Better Business has teamed up with Women in Transport to celebrate International Women’s Day.   Driving for Better Business is led by Anne-Marie Penny.   Anne-Marie, tell me a little bit about your role, and how did you get into transport and road safety   Annemarie: Hi Becky. Thank-you. I’ve been in road safety for nearly 2 decades. I was on the other side of road safety for many years as an avid motorcyclist and everything changed when I had a bike crash. I realised I had responsibilities as well and that changed my thinking. 20 years ago, a job came up in road safety and I thought I could talk about that. Here I am years later, and I feel passionate about saving peoples lives on the road. I joined National Highways 5 years ago and my main role is looking at Driving for Better Business and helping employers to meet their duty of care to make sure their drivers are acting as they should on the road. It also has great benefits to business as well, if we’re doing everything right in the management of our drivers, so it’s really important to get things right and I love my job.   Becky: And how is DfBB getting involved in International Women’s Day this year?   Annemarie: We’re marking International Women’s Day with the launch of a year of videos, podcasts, and features, looking at influential, and successful women in and around the transport sector. There are many women doing things extremely well. They’re a part of our workforce we’re really proud of. Sometimes the choices for women as they come into the workplace are not always in the transport sector. We hope to inspire people to think about the transport sector – as a woman you could make a real difference in that sector.   Becky: So what’s the idea of the campaign?   Annemarie: Women make up about 47 per cent of the UK workforce yet they are underrepresented in the transport sector, it’s about 20 per cent I think of the workforce are women.   There’s a great opportunity to raise awareness of the thousands of women who work in and make a difference in this sector, from the youngest and newest employees on apprenticeships right the way through to successful CEOs of large multinational corporates, small business, large business, private and public sectors – but there’s really a lot we can highlight here. We want to put the spotlight to inspire people to think about their choices and how they can make a difference.   Becky: So what will this campaign look like? Who will Driving for Better Business be interviewing?   Annie: We’re running through 2022 and we’ve got a whole list of women we’ve approached to take part – we’ve been overwhelmed by the positive response. So, we’re going to have podcasts like this one, interviews and ‘days in the life of’ just showing the type of work that women do in the sector and just highlighting the influence that women can have, and the good practice. We often look at the transport sector as a male dominated environment but making it more diverse means it can be more successful, and women can contribute to that success.   Becky: You mentioned women right at the very top of organisation. To what extent is leadership part of managing road safety?   Annemarie: Driving for Better Business is all about good leadership and good practice – we work with employers to influence them to make the best choices. Women are leading as fleet managers, as CEOs – that’s a really important role to play and we’ve got great examples in the podcasts and articles coming up that show women in leadership roles being the exemplar in managing risk on the road, to reduce injury, to reduce all the horrible stuff that comes with road crashes and casualties. So leadership from women in the transport sector and road safety – absolutely important.   Becky: So, tell me a few more of the women you have lined up for about the interviews you’ve got coming up   Annemarie -So we’ll be at the Health and Safety Event at the NEC 5th to 7th April. Driving for Better Business will be hosting the Driver Safety Zone. We will have Nina Day from the HSE, Alison Moriarty from Drive who is a risk management specialist in fleets, and Dr Gemma Briggs who again is a specialist in driver distraction so we’ve got 3 really key people to begin with. On the Thursday we will be hosting a panel discussion on risk management and 2 of our panel are women – really good women in action   Becky: Driving for Better Business is part of National Highways. How do NH support women in their careers?   Annemarie: – It’s a great organisation to work at in terms of their flexibility and their support for women, Many women are part timers when they come back after a career break to have children so it’s great to know they support you. We have our own Leading Women Group within the organisation so there are people you can turn to for advice and guidance at all levels.   Becky: Does National Highways have any women as patrol officers?   Annemarie: Yes, we do – I can’t tell you how many, but we do have women in those roles. We have women in our regional control centres – women are throughout the National Highways organisation – lots of different roles and right up to the top as Executive Directors   Becky: Where can people find these podcasts an articles?   Annemarie: You mentioned we are teaming up with Women in Transport – they’ll be signposted on their website, and they’ll be on the DfBB website – drivingforbetterbusiness.com – and we will have the features and articles readily available   Becky: That’s wonderful news - finally, what would be your advice to any woman thinking of coming into a career in the transport sector, which is heavily male dominated?   Annemarie: Sometimes that can be quite scary. Maybe you don’t always feel confident in that environment but the transport sector is a great environment - the different roles are so varied. Women should feel that actually, there are role models who can show them how they worked through challenges, to achieve success. It’s about thinking about career choices and how they come into this sector bringing their knowledge and experience – different and new ideas. It doesn’t matter if you’re new to the sector or been here for a long time. There’s a place for you here.   Becky: And, of course, any woman can join Women in Transport – there’s plenty of opportunities for mentoring, learning, support groups and it’s a great chance to meet likeminded individuals in the sector. Come and join us – Happy International Women’s Day for all women around in transport.

  • 12 Episodes

About

A podcast aiming to help increase the representation of women in the transport sector

Information

  • Creator
    Driving for Better Business
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2023
  • Episodes
    12
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2022 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Women in Transport Podcast