Platform Housing Group – Leadership
Group Fleet Manager Matt Neale is responsible for the 500 light commercial vehicles used by another of Platform HG’s subsidiaries which services tenanted properties. Although all of Platform HG’s workforce is united by their overall status as part of the Platform HG charity, technically Matt and his driver workforce are employed by separate companies. He also has to co-manage the workforce, whose direct line management is concerned with the core activity of maintaining properties, while Matt’s concern is the safe and reliable operation of the fleet. The need to extend standard compliance protocols throughout the fleet is compounded by the fact that Platform HG was formed in 2018 and is a merger of two different housing associations. Therefore, historically the workforce has varied training and experience when it comes to fleet safety. Matt, who joined the organisation last September, has been working hard to bring everyone onto the same safety page. A member of the Association for Fleet Professionals, he is effectively the first qualified fleet manager the organisation has ever had. He has unrolled an ambitious programme of governance and improvement over the past six months and currently has 24 ongoing projects. Some of the initial projects included:
- Asset identification – vans were dispersed and some effectively abandoned
- Selling all owned stock so the whole fleet would be modern and leased
- Introducing FleetCheck Fleet Management System
- Taking on FMG Accident management
- Trialling driver behaviour app Lightfoot
- Employing Fleet Check to do mandatory checks of all driving licences
- Setting up a task force, with a driver user group
- Implementing weekly vehicle checks with images
- Reliverying with speed limit and cyclist stickers
- Organising a driver app for compliance and a driver manual
- Toolbox talks
- Policy discouraging mobile phone use
Provider: Driving for Better Business
Resource Type: Web link