LR Driving appoints DriverCheck for licence checking

LR Driving has introduced a declaration system from licence-checking and compliance business, DriverCheck, to instantly check drivers’ licences electronically before they get behind the wheel.

A member of the British Off-Road Driving Association (BORDA), it has a fleet of 17 different marque off-road vehicles to provide a range of driving experiences over a variety of courses to corporate groups and private individuals, including a number of accredited training courses for 4x4 vehicles and trailers.

LR Driving can access the licence check results via a dedicated portal that employs dashboard imagery for them to view the returned licence data and either allow or decline the driver from driving.

“This is much less onerous system for our clients, takes all the paper out of the system and improves efficiency dramatically,” said LR Driving general manager, Ed Flanagan. “It allows us to verify driver eligibility in a completely automated, speedy and highly effective manner.”

DriverCheck managing director, Yvette Giannini, added: “In the case of LR Driving, the client needed a solution where the driver could complete the declaration quickly and efficiently for a one-off licence check, view the details and then let the driver, drive.

“Flexible declaration is perfect in that regard and is ideal for businesses, such as daily rental companies, or providers of tests drives or driving experiences, that need to validate the eligibility of numbers of drivers in a fast, efficient and completely automated manner.”

Abbott UK extends contract with FMG

Abbott has further extended its incident management and risk solutions contract with FMG.

The partnership ensures healthcare professionals have all the driver and vehicle support they need should they be involved in an incident when driving for work, including 24/7 incident reporting and repair management.

But the focus has always been incident prevention and in the past 12 months FMG has introduced FMG Indicate to give greater transparency and insight to the risk within Abbott’s driving community, combining driving behaviour and incident occurrences to identify risk areas.

It aggregates Abbott’s telematics and accident management data, creating a picture of risk within Abbott’s fleet.

Les Muggeridge, country HR director at Abbott Laboratories, said: “Our primary aim at all times is to protect the safety of our drivers by preventing incidents from happening in the first place, and FMG’s solution gives us a clear insight into driver behaviour in our fleet.

“Our drivers have been engaged from the start, with proactive support from the FMG team who are always available at the end of the phone.

“The benefits are far-reaching, with fewer serious incidents, a safer workplace and less cost to our business, together with the reassurance that when incidents do happen, our drivers have immediate access to all the support they need.”

Dave Parry, commercial director at FMG, added: “One of the biggest challenges fleet managers face is in filtering and acting upon the huge amount of risk data produced, and so our dedicated team works closely with Abbotts, assessing and analysing fleet risks and interacting with drivers to support safe driving and identify training requirements.”

Runyourfleet’s innovation recognised by Kings Award for Enterprise

Multifleet Vehicle Management, which trades as Runyourfleet, has been recognised for innovation by the King’s Award for Enterprise, marking the successful development of its online platform.

The success comes after the launch of Runyourfleet’s platform in 2021, which has resulted in company profits growing by more than 100% in each of the last three years.

It currently has a customer base of more than 1,200 businesses across the UK, providing fleet management services for more than 32,000 vehicles.

Steve Whitmarsh, chief executive of Runyourfleet, explained that company revenues had grown to £19 million in its last financial year, with staff numbers rising by 30% to 37 since 2022.

He said: “We are honoured to receive the prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise for innovation in recognition of all the hard work our team has put in to developing this platform.

“The flexible architecture used to build the platform is where the true innovation rests, enabling us to develop and launch new modules and services at short notice in response to changing market and customer needs.”

Runyourfleet was one of 252 organisations nationally to be recognised with a prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise, and just one of 59 businesses to be recognised for innovation.

Bristol introduces new cargo bike scheme for businesses

Bristol City Centre Business Improvement District (BID) and Redcliffe and Temple BID have launched a new cargo bike scheme.

The programme will provide subsidies to businesses that switch to using cargo bikes to deliver their freight.

Tom Swithinbank, project manager for public realm and sustainability at Bristol City Centre BID and Redcliffe and Temple BID, said: “Bristol Cargo Bikes for Businesses is an opportunity for us to provide a really user-friendly solution to sustainable transport for cargo. This service is available to our business community across all sectors in Bristol, helping to make our city a greener, more sustainable place for all.”

Vicky Lee, head of Bristol City Centre BID, added: “Many businesses in the centre of Bristol have ambitious sustainability goals and we hope that this scheme gives them a leg up - or wheel up - to achieve these. This approach has been tried and tested by other cities in the UK with fantastic results so we are hoping for similar results in Bristol.”

Fleet van procurement service Fleetfind added to FleetCheck’s affinity programme

FleetCheck’s affinity programme has been extended this week with the addition of fleet van procurement specialist Fleetfind.

The arrangement means that FleetCheck customers will receive free ply lining for using Fleetfind’s services.

Andy Kirby, from Fleetfind, said: “We’re already taking some of their customers through our process, which involves defining their van needs, identifying the best vehicles and finance solution, and presenting them with a range of options.

“Once a choice is made, we manage the process from ordering to fitting out and then right through to delivery.

“Our strength is that we are completely supplier agnostic. It is all about achieving the best outcome for the fleet customer.”

The new arrangement is part of the FleetCheck Affinity Services programme, which was created in 2020 to offer a range of discounted and enhanced services from providers of essential fleet services to the company’s 2,000-strong customer base.

Peter Golding (pictured), managing director at FleetCheck, said: “FleetCheck Affinity Services now has agreements in place with a number major service providers, ranging from auction services to driver training and maintenance to vehicle recovery.

“For each, we use our position to negotiate arrangements that strongly benefit our customers, especially as many look to contain costs during what remains a demanding financial period.”

Eight new patrols welcomed to RAC with graduation at Walsall HQ 

A brand-new cohort of RAC patrols have secured the keys to their future after completing a 30-month apprenticeship scheme with the motoring services company.  

Eight apprentices from the RAC Academy celebrated their graduation from apprentice to roadside patrol at a ceremony in Walsall this week, joined by their patrol mentors, college staff and academy managers. 

Originally set up in 2015, the RAC relaunched its apprenticeship academy in November 2021 to help address the ongoing automotive industry skills gap, expected to hit a shortfall of nearly 160,000 vacancies by 2031.  

The first eight graduates completed their Level 2 Vehicle and Maintenance Repair apprenticeships at North London Garages in Enfield, working three weeks in a month at the roadside and one week in the classroom.

The new patrols are Tyreiss Burton, Kiesha Corbin, Jamie Riaz, Praneeth Rajapakse, James Barrall, Zaahir Patel, Haseeb Patel and Ronaldo Powlette.  

RAC Academy manager Tony Cullum said: “Since starting their courses in November 2021, the commitment and ambition from all eight apprentices has been outstanding, perfectly demonstrating the high level of service we commit to providing for our members. We look forward to seeing them out on the road.” 

Currently, the RAC Academy has 82 apprentices with courses either completed or in progress across eight different cohorts at North London Garages and S&B Automotive Academy, Bristol.