‘A careful bunch’

Colleagues at Plymouth Vehicle Operations Centre had an extra sweetener added to their daily brew after they went 1,000+ days without injury - the equivalent of three years.

To celebrate the achievement, the whole team was presented with congratulatory mugs, stamped with the impressive milestone and our national distribution logo.

The mugs, which were handed to all drivers and managers at the site last month, went down well with colleagues.

Charlie Brown, advance driver coach, said traffic officer manager Phil Alderson spearheaded the safety initiative, but it had been a team effort to keep up the unit’s accomplished tally.

‘We’re quite a small, close-knit unit and we watch each other’s backs,’ said Charlie. ‘If anything’s difficult, like a reverse, the drivers are more than happy to come in and say, “can you watch me?” or, “can we have that moved?”

‘We instil team camaraderie into the drivers so they never struggle. It’s always lovely to be recognised and it’s nice of the managers to say well done.’

As well as manoeuvring vehicles, colleagues at the site regularly have to move yorks, which can easily result in manual handling injuries, such as muscle sprains. Slips, trips and falls are also hazards they’ve managed to avoid.

Going so long without injury shows the team takes health and safety seriously, said lead distribution manager, Simon Lobb, who added: ‘It proves they’re a careful bunch of people, they’re not taking short cuts or risks and they’re following the briefings we give them.’

Pictured from left: H&S rep Martin Smith, Phil Alderson, Simon Lobb and Charlie Brown.