Eddie Stobart has won a top national safety award for its Stop, Think, Act campaign which has helped slash the number of RIDDOR accidents by 91% and decreased Eddie Stobart’s Accident Frequency Rate by 84%.

Fighting off tough competition from finalists including Virgin Trains and City Link, it picked up the Best Health & Safety Achievement in Transport and Logistics at the prestigious SHP IOSH Awards in London last night.

Eddie Stobart has always had an impressive health and safety record but was striving to remove the easily preventable and avoidable accidents and incidents that cost time, money and potential harm to its highly-trained and much-valued staff.

So, in June 2010, Eddie Stobart’s Health & Safety Manager Neil Marston launched the Stop, Think, Act campaign to focus on accident prevention and asked employees to assess a potential unsafe situation and then take appropriate action. The campaign adopted a ‘traffic light’ approach where staff were encouraged to Stop, Think then Act. All employees received a pocket-sized reminder card and posters were prominently displayed across Stobart Group depots, warehouses and offices.

It very much recognised that a successful health and safety campaign must take a common-sense approach especially in a company that operates a fleet of over 2,200 vehicles in a fast-paced logistics industry.

To back up the safety campaign, a purpose built training academy was opened by Transport Minister Mike Penning and is now used for all staff inductions and on-going training. It has full-sized trucks and trailers to enable practical safety demonstrations and hands-on experience for staff.

Eddie Stobart also trained and appointed four Safety Advisors across the business to engage with drivers on the ground and delivered the IOSH Managing Safety course to over 50 of its First Line Managers.

In a separate ceremony last night, Stobart Group Chief Executive Andrew Tinkler was presented the Sir Robert Lawrence Award by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport for his contribution to the logistics industry.

Neil Marston, Eddie Stobart Health & Safety Manager, said: “This award is recognition of the hard work from everyone in the Health & Safety team and the success of the Stop, Think, Act campaign. Robust health and safety processes are vital in reducing and managing the risks associated with a fast-paced logistics business. We wanted people to continue to work and operate normally but to ensure they work safely and follow our practices and procedures. This really is a common sense approach. By following our advice and just assessing the situation first, we have prevented many of the simple, avoidable accidents that still seemed to be happening in the business.”