Commercial vehicle hire specialist ND Brown has secured FORS Silver Standard accreditation after kitting out its entire fleet with safety solutions.
The firm runs a 750-strong fleet, including vans and pickups alongside HGVs, and wanted to raise industry standards and promote best practice.
Its partnership with vehicle safety specialist Sentinel Systems has done exactly that.
Focused on reducing road risk, especially the safety of vulnerable road users, the two firms first partnered six years ago for an initial trial phase. Based on the success of that scheme, ND Brown is now deploying the technology on 150 new vehicles each year.
It means the full fleet now has Sentinel equipment installed, reducing the possibility of accidents, as well as giving drivers additional confidence and reassurance.
The side vision cameras, complete with cycle hotspot systems and side protection solutions, provide drivers with a clear view while driving and manoeuvring the rental vehicle.
Based on its expert knowledge of FORS, Sentinel ensures the exact vehicle safety requirements are met on every vehicle.
As a result, ND Brown says it’s the first commercial vehicle hire firm in the UK to be accredited with the FORS Silver Standard.
Harry Brown ND Brown’s operations director explained: “Having our fleet accredited with FORS is great for us, in fact, nearly all of our customers insist on it so it’s useful we were so ahead of the game with fitting Sentinel’s equipment to all new vehicles. They’ve also advised us on many compliance issues when we’ve had queries from customers.”
The partnership sees Sentinel’s in-house installation team liaise directly with ND Brown’s various body builders and fit the solution appropriate for the vehicle type, before delivery to ND Brown.
Brown continued: “Sentinel liaises directly with our body builders so it’s stress-free for us. All new vehicles are fully ready for hire when delivered and have passed our internal audit process.”
Sentinel’s dedicated service and maintenance team also gives ND Brown full support to call on if anything goes wrong. All maintenance and repairs are carried out by the same in-house team that installed the systems, cutting fleet downtime.
ND Brown’s fleet & maintenance coordinator, Alex Gallan added: “We appreciate that Sentinel is able to react quickly when a vehicle is damaged during operation. The support team help us to quickly get our vehicles out for re-hire, which is vital for us.”
