March 2010 - Golden Performance By Northgate For Second Consecutive Year in 2010 RoSPA Health and Safety Awards
Northgate, the UK's largest vehicle rental business, has had its reputation for promoting health and safety to employees and customers recognised with a prestigious Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents' (RoSPA) Gold Award for the second consecutive year.
Darlington-based Northgate Vehicle Hire, which operates a fleet of 61,000 vehicles won a RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Gold Award for the first time last year after winning Silver Awards in 2006 and 2008.
The Award will be presented at a ceremony at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole Hotel, National Exhibition Centre, on Tuesday, May 11. The ceremony will take place alongside Safety & Health Expo 2010, Europe's leading annual health and safety exhibition.
David Rawlins, RoSPA's awards manager, said: "Northgate Vehicle Hire has shown a commitment to protecting the health and well-being of its employees and others. Organisations which do this deserve to have such dedication recognised and that's where the RoSPA Awards come in."
"As well as there being clear ethical reasons and legal requirements for good health and safety management, there is also a strong business case. RoSPA is delighted to publicly honour organisations which have demonstrated their work to improve performance in this sphere."
Colin Gilstin, Northgate's health and safety manager, said: "We believe that winning the Gold Award for the second year in a row represents Northgate's commitment to promoting a positive health and safely culture whilst demonstrating the importance of engaging with our employees where health and safety is concerned."
"Providing a safe workplace for our employees is of paramount importance to Northgate and fulfilling this requirement is fundamental at all times to achieving our business aims and objectives."
The RoSPA Awards are not just about reducing the number of accidents and cases of ill-health at work; they help to ensure that organisations have good health and safety management systems in place.
In the UK and Ireland, Northgate has a network of 20 local hire companies operating from 60 rental locations.
The latest award further adds to Northgate's external as well as internal board of directors-led focus on health and safety. The company remains the only rental firm that has joined the 'Driving for Better Business' campaign, a Department for Transport initiative delivered by RoadSafe to promote occupational road risk management in a bid to reduce the 200 road deaths and serious injuries a week resulting from crashes involving at-work drivers. The company is also a leading supporter of road safety charity Brake.
Mr Gilstin said: "We are particularly keen to promote our safety intentions to all external stakeholders in order to clearly demonstrate that safety is the number one priority within the organisation. We believe we have achieved significant improvements over recent times and we will continue to look at ways to improve and promote safety throughout our industry."
Late last year Northgate reviewed and reissued all its health, safety and environment policies. The company also evaluates all contractors' health and safety policies and procedures and only after meeting Northgate's requirements do they join its 'nominated contractor supplier list'.
Internally, significant investment in health and safety sees employees attend a range of courses to equip them with the necessary safety skills and knowledge for their roles. For example, Northgate has now trained more than 700 employees to a British Safety Council Level One standard in health and safety with senior managers attending the three-day Level Two course with further training taking place this year.
A further example of how Northgate has helped raise safety standards within the vehicle rental industry is the fact that it became the first daily rental company in the UK to licence its workshop mechanics. Licensed through the Society of Operation Engineers (IRTEC) Licensing Scheme mechanics are tested both theoretically and practically in order to determine their competence and improve knowledge in relation to vehicle maintenance.
The RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards 2010 are sponsored by NEBOSH (The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health), the leading health and safety professional examining body.
