RoSPA Press Office : Press Release

May 20, 2005
COMPANY WINS TOP AWARD AFTER CUTTING ROAD ACCIDENTS

A company with more than 1,100 drivers has won a special award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents after reducing its road accident rate by 28 per cent over a four-year period.

RoSPA’s trophy for managing occupational road risk (MORR) has gone to Planned Maintenance Engineering Limited of Battersea, London. The award is part of a new scheme to recognise the efforts made by businesses and organisations to reduce deaths and injuries on UK roads.

It was presented to Richard Groves, Planned Maintenance Engineering’s Health and Safety Director, at RoSPA’s Occupational Health and Safety Awards dinner at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole last night (Thurs) by Lord Brougham and Vaux, the Society’s Vice-President. Global building solutions company CEMEX, which recently acquired RMC Group, sponsors the awards.

Planned Maintenance Engineering is a building services company providing 24-hour callout to 40,000 properties across the UK belonging to more than 400 organisations. It has 15 branches throughout the UK and Ireland and has a fleet of nearly 1,000 vehicles - mostly cars and some vans – covering more than a million miles a year.

Charles Davis, RoSPA Head of Driver and Fleet Solutions said: “Up to 1,000 people are killed in work-related road accidents each year and we need more employers to follow the lead shown by Planned Maintenance Engineering.

“We were particularly impressed by the way they have integrated the management of occupational road risk into their mainstream health and safety policies. There is a commitment throughout the company to issues such as training, monitoring and accident investigation.”

Richard Groves said: “We are honoured to receive this award and are continuing to develop our MORR strategies so that all our licensed drivers will have a specific risk assessment coupled with appropriate training developed by the in-house health and safety team.”

Commended in RoSPA’s MORR awards section was ScottishPower Fleet Business, Glasgow. MORR gold award winners were: Arriva North West and Wales, Palmer and Harvey McLane, Ltd, Coventry, and United Utilities Service Delivery, Warrington. Silver awards went to: ANC Limited, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, British Nuclear Group Reactor Sites, `Musgrave Budgen Londis, Harefield, and RWE npower Ltd. Bronze winners were: Denbighshire County Council, Office of Public Works, County Meath, and Select Plant Hire Co Ltd, Grays.

Entrants for gold awards must provide four years of accident records, for silver three years of data, for bronze two and for merit one. They are also required to answer 10 key performance questions to explain their policies and procedures for managing occupational road risk.