Gary Lewis opened the Birmingham event talking safety at the highest standards, hosted by Tarmac, whose fleet hold the FORS standard. ‘Safety is at the heart of our agenda.’

Steve Agg chaired the introductions including TfL Peter Bingham, and TfGM Manchester Richard Banks, DVSA Dave Wood & Fidelma Byrne Highways England among the top-brass.

Keyvan Rahmatabadi FCP, boss of FORS, set a view to discuss the benefits and purpose of FORS. It's about safety. It's not furry dice, it's not membership, it's like a kite mark. A review is on its way and working groups are forming for passenger vehicles and light vehicles.

In the existing standard FORS e-learning has been specified. Larger operators often have their own dedicated learning packages; asking them to use a sector wide standard learning platform may not be the best way. This also raised the issue, is it approporiate for FORS to deliver training for a standard they are testing and auditing?

Discussion followed about the fit of one standard for all vehicles: could there be a core standard with streams for heavy, light, passenger, freight versions of the standard?

DVSA are integrating their compliance with FORS. DVSA have set KPIs to work with operators as an action plan,