FORS: What is it good for?

FORS described itself as a ‘business enabler’ at its conference this year. What it enables - and how - are questions that Roadway Editor Tony Hall sought answers to during his conversation with Glen Davies, FORS’ technical advisor.

An extended version of this interview is in the August issue of Roadway Magazine

Working relations between the RHA and Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) have seen an improvement in recent months. A marked sign of this came in March when the Association became a member of FORS’ Governance and Standards Advisory Group (GSAG), which sits to advise and recommend changes to the FORS Scheme, and to oversee its integrity.

Obligation or compliance?

So, what is FORS for? It’s a question of the worth of accreditation that I posed to FORS’ technical advisor Glen Davies – and the relationship between legal and voluntary standards that the RHA has often described as disconnected.

“Accreditation is accreditation,” Davies responds. “There are a lot of accreditations in business. Is ISO worth it? But people have it. Is a star grading on a hotel worth it? I don’t know. You could ask this question of any accreditation out there.”

A tolerance for standards

Quite often, he says, FORS has been faced with the comment the DVSA and Traffic Commissioners are the custodians of the standards.

There is an argument for that, yes absolutely, he says. “If that’s your operating line and all you want to do is comply with the law then that’s great. But many operators want to differentiate, so therefore they have other standards, personal standards as well. We have operators who want and need to meet client requirements.”

Davies sets his argument in terms of formalities of a contract.

“I would think the formalities of the contract, if a client says you need to be accredited, then it’s a customer requirement. You have the operating standards that you want as a business to operate.”

Perhaps, he adds, “I might not be an attractive employer if I only just advertise myself as just complying with the law.”

Investment in people

Compliance should mean going further than holding to the letter of the law, he insists. “I think that’s why a company policy should always go with the law, to ensure compliance, but also operate to culture that they need to operate as a company.”

High standards brings us on to two issues: achieving them, and maintaining them.

“One of the things that’s fascinated me about this sector is we sort of default to what is required by law and not so much the additional professional development on top of that,” he explains.

“That’s always been a passion of mine, to make sure there is some sort of professional management structure, a recognised structure within the industry, that people can follow and adopt.”

As a result, he explains FORS launched a series of best practice workshops in 2007, “covering off the subjects I’ve mentioned and driver fitness & health, managing driver professional development, managing performance.

“Very quickly we recognised these were really popular: people wanted them, but they wanted some kind of structure around them – that’s where we created the FORS Practitioner.”

Since establishment of the programme Davies says FORS Practitioner has delivered 2,000 different training sessions, and that there are now 3,000 fully qualified Practitioners.

“I’m very proud of that,” he says.

Checks and balances

And what about audits I ask? “I don’t think any aspect of our operation should go unchecked,” he says. “Whether internal or external. Internal is great.

“If you’re not conducting those checks, if you’re not addressing any imbalances in your operation, you’re not addressing any shortfalls yourself, then an external eye will probably identify that at some point. And that could be an enforcement body. So probably better get in an external eye looking at your operation: a viewpoint or separate set of eyes, and an indifferent set of eyes, before an enforcement officer does it for you.”