Sean McGrae, Senior Manager National Transport at Tarmac, presented at the CLOCS Conference 2019 on the 20th March 2019 in Birmingham.
Sean McGrae said, “Tarmac has proudly been at the forefront of driving improved standards across the construction fleet sector for years. The CLOCS Standard makes good commercial sense for clients, principal contractors and fleet operators alike as it provides consistency across the UK and forces a rigour on all companies”.
Every responsible client and principal contractor in the UK should ensure they are specifying in their pre-quals and contract conditions to ensure that “whether you’re in London, Manchester, Cardiff or Glasgow, all site arrangements and vehicle journeys must comply with the CLOCS Standard. For fleet operators that means meeting the standard described as FORS Silver”. Sean acknowledges this creates very real commercial pressures for all parties but the personal, financial and reputational cost of inaction is much, much greater. Insurance payouts alone now average £2m for collisions resulting in serious injuries. So positive action is required to ensure vehicles are suitably equipped, drivers trained, management systems implemented and lessons from any collisions and near misses learned.”
Sean highlighted that mutual benefit for procurers and suppliers is at risk of being undermined when there isn’t a critical mass of clients and principal contractors specifying CLOCS and providing decent site conditions. He added “Every fleet operator and site operator, particularly those that are registered CLOCS Champions, should urge their customers to adopt the CLOCS Standard and require all site and fleet operations to meet that Standard. Where operations are found to fall short, organisations should be immediately informed, constructively challenged and supported to meet the required standard to everyone’s benefit.”
Tarmac, a CRH company, is the UK’s leading sustainable building materials and construction solutions business.
