FORS - Fleet operator recognition scheme. More focus for vans as scheme achieves four thousand members. IOC chair Carl Lomas sat at the Governance council Oct bringing more van vision to the London standard turned national. FORS passed four thousand members in the last quarter, half of the vehicles are vans, the FORS emblem born in London has become a national representation of fleets working inside the standard to look at workforce, vehicle, compliance and clean air. The very latest standards V4,1 are published, take a look here, The bar has been raised a little for gold standard and some silver requirements have been passed down to Bronze.
Storm Rannard for Insider News reports - Geman giant moves for UK Mail
Insider news report - Germany's Deutsche Post DHL looks set to acquire UK Mail after a £242.7m takeover bid was recommended to shareholders of the parcel delivery business. Under the terms of the offer, UK Mail shareholders will receive 440 pence per share and will also be entitled to an interim dividend of 5.5 pence per share. Peter Kane, chairman of UK Mail, said: "We have made good strategic progress in recent years, establishing leading positions in our key markets of parcels and mail, investing in additional capacity in our operations and in IT and product and service innovation. "However, the board believes that UK Mail will benefit significantly from becoming part of Deutsche Post DHL, and will be better positioned to continue to develop our parcels and mail businesses with the benefit of Deutsche Post DHL's greater financial and operational resources." The offer is subject to approval from UK Mail shareholders. The company's directors were advised by Investec Bank and described the bid as "fair and reasonable". Jürgen Gerdes, board member of Deutsche Post DHL, added: "The on-going expansion of our parcel network in Europe is driven by increasing demand within our e-commerce customer base for cross-border deliveries.
Infrastructure scored top priority for action, a national flavour with speakers from Coventry and Manchester. Guests from major players to small SMEs and two fully electric fleet operators.
Air quality, payload to weight, range, distance and legislation around charging were the big topics driven from the floor.
Chair Carl Lomas,
The van group clearly has two streams, operators who return vehicles for fuel or charge to their base and operators whose drivers take vehicles home, they are unlikely to have off-street parking, garage or charging facilities, The two groups are very different and each face infrastructure challenges that are quite different.
Dept for Education gave the green light for a degree apprenticeship for Express managers as part of the Trailblazer apprenticeships Sept 16th 2016.
IOC chair, Carl Lomas comments,
This will deliver a funded route, for levy and non-levy paying employers, lasting around five years, targeting next-generation entrants and existing team members aspiring to management in the express sector. The five year course will begin with management cpc or FORS practitioner and roll into a part-time degree study with a range of Universities including Derby, MMU, and West London.
Expected to start Sept 2017, a candidate will begin a job role in our sector, have no university fees to pay and be able to attain their degree within five years. There will be strong content on customer, final mile success, returns and sortation hubs. LoCity, air quality and delivery practices will be embedded into the learning.
Helen Smith launched TfGM freight group,
IMHX at the NEC, rail, tram and feet to make a multi-modal shift from Birmingham to Manchester. Consultants talking shop, a cracking lunch and then real business with a focused sector-specific set of round tables to make change inside the Northern Powerhouse. Parking, planning, customer education and clean air topped the bill.
Leon Daniels, Managing Director of Surface Transport for TfL comments,
Ian was a key player in the development of the original London Freight Plan and led the freight team during the 2012 Olympics, ensuring the success of both the freight industry and London during the Games. The fact that all of this year's Mayoral candidates included freight policies in their manifestos is a testament to Ian and the work of his team to ensure that the lessons from the Games were captured and developed upon. Ian will remain in post until after the Freight Forum on 21 October where we will provide an update as to how our Freight Programme will be managed in the future.
In the interim, the main contacts for the Freight team remain as:
-Tim Ward, Engagement Manager for Freight Communications
-Stephen Steele, Programme Manager for Efficient Deliveries
-Hannah White, Programme Manager for Safety & Environment
-Paul Strang, Senior Strategy & Planning Manager for Freight Strategy
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