CLOCS showcases the future of construction industry road safety

27 February 2015

CLOCS – Construction Logistics & Cycle Safety – demonstrated the successful results of the first two years of the industry-led initiative at its bi-annual progress event at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre in London yesterday and announced its plans to further increase the reach of the programme nationwide in the coming year.

The event incorporated three aspects: a display of safety-optimised vehicles developed in partnership with CLOCS, a seminar programme and an exhibition of safer driving aids from a selection of suppliers which can help operators meet the CLOCS Standard. The vehicle fleet display included the new low-entry high-vision Mercedes-Benz Econic tipper – a high-vision tipper designed for construction industry use – and vehicles from DAF Trucks, Scania, Volvo and MAN with higher-vision options, incorporating lower cabs and additional glass for improved driver vision.

The keynote speech was given by Sir Peter Hendy CBE, Commissioner of Transport for London, with presentations given by representatives from road safety charities Road Peace and See Me Save Me, and the legal angle explained by Jonathon Backhouse from Backhouse Jones Solicitors.

London’s Transport Commissioner, Sir Peter Hendy CBE, said: “Every death and injury on our roads is a tragedy and ruins lives. At TfL we are reducing these wherever possible, and are proud to be a supporter and funder of CLOCS, which has been making great progress to make all road users safer.

“The new vehicles on show today, with massively reduced blind spots, show what can be done if people join together for a common good to solve a simple problem. We will continue our work to improve freight road safety in all aspects, be it collaboration, regulation, enforcement and lobbying, to create a Capital fit for freight, and freight fit for the Capital.”

Supported by its Champions*, the event provided an update on all the things that the initiative has helped to achieve over the last year, including Members of the European Parliament voting to improve road safety through redesigned HGV cab designs and the addition of safety features; the roll-out and widespread take up of the CLOCS Manager system – a collision reporting and management tool for drivers and operators – and the successful implementation of the CLOCS Standard within construction sector supply chains across the UK, with 23 major clients and projects specifying it in contracts.

CLOCS also launched two new guidance publications at the event. The first of these is the CLOCS Guide –Vehicle safety equipment, a guide for operators on specifying safety features for their vehicles to stay in line with the CLOCS Standard. This includes advice on assessing vehicle safety options, complying with the CLOCS, FORS and TfL Work Related Road Risk Compliance and examples of policy documents for easy implementation into operator processes. The second is a CLOCS Compliance toolkit which helps clients to implement the standard in a consistent way.

Dave Hart, Logistics & Supply Chain at CEMEX UK and CLOCS Champion said: “Yesterday’s event was a good opportunity for us to show not just the industry and the public, but also to remind ourselves, of the progress CLOCS has made in improving safety in the construction industry over the last two years. Keeping vulnerable road user safety firmly at the forefront of the industry’s mind is central to our work and we will continue to be the driving force of the initiative going forward.

 “With a large fleet of nearly 1000 vehicles travelling throughout the country, we are aware of the consequences of road accidents involving vulnerable road users such as cyclists.  We all share the road and have to take responsibility for our own and each other’s safety.”

Cynthia Barlow OBE, campaigner for RoadPeace and speaker at the event, said: “My daughter was killed by a concrete mixer lorry while she was cycling to work in 2000. Construction vehicles are still disproportionately involved in the deaths and serious injuries of vulnerable road users, cyclists and pedestrians, and it is unacceptable to allow this to continue when preventive action can be taken. The CLOCS Champions have demonstrated that the right policies, training, and technology can make a difference and we now need to spread this across the country and throughout the supply chain in the construction logistics industry. We can stop these needless tragic deaths.”

CLOCS is an industry-supported, TfL-backed initiative, which came about as a result of an independent research report of the same name published in 2013. The research made a number of recommendations on how collisions between members of the construction industry and vulnerable road users might be reduced. It is aiming for national reach via the roll out of a consistent standard  for managing work-related road safety. While the focus so far has been on London, a number of CLOCS Champions are nationwide companies and the initiative will travel much further afield during 2015. 

Media contacts:

Caroline Holmes, 020 7952 1072, cholmes@torqueagencygroup.com

*CLOCS Champions

CLOCS Champions are organisations and /or individual construction projects actively implementing the requirements within and ensuring compliance to the CLOCS Standard. These may be fleet operators, construction clients, developers or other organisations which by the nature of their business may not be able to actively implement the Standard but commit to supporting its implementation and purpose.  

Champions are listed on the CLOCS website and are able to use the CLOCS logo and branding elements on their site material and stationery to promote CLOCS and specifically the Standard.

Organisations wishing to become CLOCS Champions should read the Terms of Reference and sign a Memorandum of Understanding, both of which are available on the CLOCS website, www.clocs.org.uk.

Notes to editors:

Implemented by local authorities through planning conditions and construction clients through contracts, the CLOCS Standard provides a common set of requirements to manage work-related road safety that can be adhered to in a consistent way by fleet operators.

For more information visit http://www.clocs.org.uk/

Between 2008 and 2013, 55 per cent of cyclist fatalities in London involved a heavy goods vehicle and nationally large goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes are involved in approximately 15 per cent of cyclist and 10 per cent of pedestrian fatalities. A disproportionate number of these were construction vehicles. In 2012 Transport for London commissioned an independent review of the construction sector’s transport activities to understand the causes of these collisions and how they might be prevented. The resulting ‘Construction Logistics and Cyclist Safety' (CLOCS) report was published in February 2013 by the Transport Research Laboratory.

In response, the construction logistics industry demonstrated its commitment to change and identified actions under three work streams to improve road safety. CLOCS brings together the construction logistics industry nationwide to revolutionise the management of work-related road risk and embed a road safety culture across the industry as the UK's population and economy grows.

Improving vehicle safety through design and manufacture of safer new vehicles and fitment of appropriate safety equipment to existing vehicles Addressing the safety imbalance in the construction industry through ensuring road safety is considered as important as health and safety on site. Encouraging wider adoption of best practice across the construction logistics industry through taking best-in-class examples, developing a common national standard and embedding a new cultural norm.