Big wins for SECAmb at the Brake Fleet Safety Awards 2016

South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) picked up three awards at the prestigious Brake Fleet Safety Awards held in Birmingham on 29 September.

SECAmb had earlier in the year been shortlisted in three categories – the Company Driver Safety Award, the ECO Fleet Award and the Fleet Safety Innovation Award.

‘Brake’, the road safety charity, organises the annual awards scheme to recognise the achievements of suppliers and operators working to reduce the number of crashes involving people who are driving as part of their work.

SECAmb scooped the top spot twice for implementing initiatives that achieve safer driving among employees and by introducing green initiatives earning them the Company Driver Safety Award and the ECO Fleet Award. Additionally, they received the ‘highly commended’ award in the Fleet Safety Innovation category for their pioneering approach to fleet safety.

SECAmb’s fleet, which approximately covers a combined 17 million miles per year, has seen a number of ground breaking initiatives introduced through a driver safety programme. It has incorporated new technology including Dynamic Speed Control (to reduce the Trust’s CO2 footprint), Telematics (to monitoring driver behaviour), CCTV (enabling identification of poor driving and improve driver training) and Specialist Training vehicles. An Ambulance Driver Risk Indexing tool (ADRI) can assess drivers’ behaviours, measuring at-work driver risk and delivering a range of interventions such as intensified training to those deemed ‘at risk’.

Last year SECAmb won the Blue Light & Public Sector Fleet of the Year category at the Commercial Fleet Awards 2015. It was also commended in the Green Fleet Awards 2015.

SECAmb’s Head of Fleet and Logistics John Griffiths said: “To have received three awards is really good news and shows the hard work and strategic thinking the team has. It also shows real potential for us to continue to do well going forward. I’m pleased for everyone in the team that our efforts have been recognised in this way.”

Ellie Pearson, Professional Engagement Manager at Brake commented: “We were delighted to receive so many strong entries again this year with organisations and individuals doing fantastic work to make our roads safer.  Congratulations to all this year’s award winners and highly commended entrants for their impressive work over the past year.”