After obtaining and maintaining your FORS Bronze accreditation, you may be thinking of progressing to the next level, FORS Silver. Perhaps you’re looking to gain more clients or bag larger contracts, maybe you want to improve compliance and go above and beyond your current Bronze accreditation. It could be you only want to take the Bronze audit every other year once you have gained your FORS Silver accreditation. Whatever your intentions, there are a few points to note before you take the plunge.
Policies, risk assessments, and requirements
The FORS Silver application has evolved to be very detailed and requires specific information including policies, risk assessments, and other requirements to be submitted. You will need to ensure you have these in place prior to your application. These include:
- S1. FORS Bronze – you will not be able to apply for FORS Silver without gaining the initial Bronze accreditation. If you don’t have FORS Bronze, we can help with this. For more information visit our FORS Bronze Help page here.
- S2. Performance Data – you are required to supply performance data to monitor operational performance and demonstrate meaningful improvements
- S3. Fuel, emissions, air quality & Anti Idling – you will need to be committed to the understanding and management of operational performance levels and the impacts on the environment. Monitor, manage and review fuel consumption, emissions, and environmental impact. Ensure that activities will take into account the health and quality of life of all our employees, customers, suppliers, and the public
- S4. Road Risk: Driving standards, RTC & WRRR – you will need a policy and processes in place to ensure safe standards of driving, consideration for other road users and reduce the risk of death and injury are in place
- S5. Professional Development – you will need to demonstrate you have had all drivers (and other staff involved in the fleet operation) trained in accordance with FORS mandatory training requirements. See below
- S7. Noise Pollution – you will need to assess noise impacts of operational activities, driver behaviour, and equipment used at operating centres and relevant customer locations
- S6. Vehicle Safety Equipment – extra safety equipment is required including reversing system, left-turn system, camera system, in-cab display screen, in-cab audible warning system – close proximity sensor and driver audible alert
- S8. Internal Communications – you will need to promote FORS and the requirements of the FORS Standard across the organisation and raise awareness of road risk, environmental impact, efficiency and terrorist threat and achieve long-term behavior change
- S9. Sub-Contracted Services – you will need to ensure you have a policy, process, and template contract in place
Staff training (S5. Professional Development)
FORS Silver requires extra staff training, over and above the Bronze requirements.
- Drivers will need to complete either Safe Urban Driving on cycle training (SUD) or Van Smart classroom training & LoCity eLearning for Drivers. There are funded courses available from Fleetsource via the link below, places are limited however
- Fleet Managers are required to complete practitioner modules 2, 5 & 7. Currently (at the time of writing) there is a lack of courses on offer, so managers can alternatively, complete the WRRR eLearning modules, collision investigator & road risk champion. Managers need to email FORS (email link) and request to be added to the waiting list for Practitioner Modules and will need to be evidenced in your application. Managers will also be required to complete LoCity eLearning.
Return on investment (ROI)
Lastly, as with all company spend decisions, you need to work out your return on investment ROI. Is obtaining Silver worth the extra work and cost? ROI is a financial ratio that compares the gain or loss from an investment, relative to its cost. Essentially how much revenue you will get in return for your investment. There are a few ways to calculate ROI, however, you can use an online calculator such as this one.
How can TMconsultant help?
TMconsultant will provide a dedicated FORS consultant and supply all the required documentation templates to assist with your Silver accreditation. We will reduce the time and hassle to ensure your FORS Silver application is as painless as possible. Our consultants are either FORS auditors themselves or hold the FORS practitioner certificate, rest assured you will be in safe hands! We charge a one-off guaranteed pass fee of £775.00 and you can purchase directly from our shop here. Alternatively, check our FORS Silver help page here for more information.
In the meantime, if you have any questions or would just like to have chat feel free to get in touch. Here to share the knowledge!