Fors (or, in full, the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme as it's now known) is by any measure a successful scheme.
Nurtured by TfL since inception in 2008, it now has 2,400 companies in membership, representing some 210,000 vehicles.
Around two-thirds of these members are also based outside of London, although will likely hold it as they conduct their business in or around the capital.
Fors, the best-practice scheme that saves fleets money by promoting efficieny, and lives by enforcing (at higher levels) vulnerable road user safety equipment, has achieved critical mass.
It means TfL's stated aim of taking the scheme national is both realistic and a logical next step, albeit via private hands. The Hub is also aware that any critcisim of a successful scheme promoting best practice in a sector that is too often fragmented and inconsistent feels counterintuitive.
However, with the deal to run Fors awarded to Aecom on a five-year contract that mandates it become "self-funding", fees of some sort are inevitable and this can't be ignored.
The Hub speculates that a membership charge for what is currently a free scheme could be introduced, or fees will be payable for audits. Either way operators will be paying.
That's fair enough, Fors can't be run for free on a business basis afterall. But it also moves Fors from an aspirational, nice-to-have where the outlay was time and equipment, to something that will cost operators extra cash. Extra expense.
Ultimately, some will feel it a worthwhile charge, and a worthwhile sacrifice. Others may not.
However, with the likes of Mace, Laing O’Rourke, Thames Water and even Cambridge University, now demanding Fors bronze status from their contractors if they wish to tender for work with them, it can no longer be argued that accreditation is voluntary either, certainly for those in certain sectors of road transport. If you as a transport company interface with the construction industry or infrastruture projects of various scale and complexity, then you need Fors - especially in and around London - to win work. Opting out is not an option for many (nor I suspect would many operators wish to do so).
Yet with national roll-out ahead more hauliers will become part of Fors and its expanding web, with sectors beyond building and utilities drawn in.
Again, it may well be the right thing for road transport as a whole longer term, but charging for Fors does, for better or worse, fundamentally change the scheme and the relationship between owner and operators.
That may not be a bad thing - as long as the fees charged are proportionate - but it is without doubt a new thing and 2015 will be an interesting year for the newly privatised Fors.