One of the UK's largest plant, tool and equipment hire companies, A-Plant, has taken on a new role with the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme by becoming a FORS Champion.

As well as being a committed FORS member, the company will be writing to each of its transport suppliers to encourage them to become FORS members.

A-Plant's director of transport services Shaun Winstanley said: 'As an operator, we are well placed to champion the benefits of the scheme and will be encouraging the companies we work with to sign up and get the most from the scheme as we have done'

The company, the first to renew their Whole Fleet Accreditation (WFA) under FORS Standard v4.0, has been a member of FORS since 2009.

A-Plant's WFA status means that its own auditing process has been approved by FORS for use across its network. The company also has a dedicated member of staff whose role involves helping different centres progress through the accreditation levels. A-Plant currently has 24 sites at Gold Standard, 136 at Silver and 31 at Bronze but is working to progress its Silver sites to Gold.

'Achieving FORS Gold status demonstrates to our employees that we are investing further in their safety and improving their skill-sets,' said Shaun.

'The accreditation also assures customers that they are dealing with a professional, trusted company which takes compliance, safety and the environment seriously. As we have progressed through the FORS standard, we have trained more 1100 drivers on Safe Urban Driving courses (SUD) and extended our own mandatory new employee driver training course to incorporate it'