Further questions about the usefulness of Fors membership have surfaced, after it emerged some public sector bodies in London do not require truck operators they subcontract to be involved in the newly privatised accreditation scheme.
Essex vehicle recovery firm Boleyn Recovery and Fleet Services told MT it had evidence of three London boroughs and the Metropolitan Police using non-Fors-accredited truck operators.
“This practice makes the whole scheme pointless,” said director Stephen Smith, who is also president of the ATF Operators Association.
TfL has always maintained Fors membership will help firms win business and some, like gold member D&G Noble, have confirmed it does exactly that.
But Smith isn’t so sure. “The standard is not being recognised and supported by the authorities, even though one of their reasons for being a member is to gain more work. In reality, the opposite is true – the authorities award contracts to non-Fors members because they are cheaper,” he said.
Two of the London boroughs Smith named – Newham and Haringey – have confirmed that not all their subcontractors are Fors-registered, although Newham only has one subcontractor with three vehicles. Haringey said it was a requirement that all new subcontractors must have it.
The third, Barking and Dagenham, did not respond to MT’s enquires.
A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police, meanwhile, told MT none of its vehicle recovery and examination subcontractors were Fors-compliant but that they should all be bronze-accredited within the next eight weeks.
Fors came under the day-to-day running of Aecom last week.
