FleetCheck has signed a new partnership with the Society of Operations Engineers (SOE), as part of the company’s wider strategy to promote at-work road safety.
The fleet software specialist is aiming to form relationships with major professional and trade bodies in order to provide information and expertise on proactive risk management.
Initial activities planned with the SOE include a comprehensive new guide to fleet safety fundamentals customised to the organisation’s needs.
In addition, the Institute of Road Transport Engineers (IRTE), which is part of the SOE, has launched the Maintenance Provision Rating Scheme (MPRS).
This is an industry-led project to assess and rate the quality of commercial vehicle maintenance workshops with the aim of raising overall safety standards.
FleetCheck will be holding a webinar to its user base at 10am on 26 November to promote the advantages of the initiative.
Barrie Wilson, FleetCheck commercial fleet consultant, said: “We’re very pleased to be working with the SOE and them becoming the first of our new professional body partnerships.
“We are two organisations with a similar culture when it comes to promoting at-work road safety, and the activities and initiatives we are planning should provide valuable guidance to SOE members who operate commercial vehicles.
“Especially, the presence of the IRTE is compelling. Their new MPRS scheme is something that we believe could make a genuine difference to fleet maintenance standards and we are committed to playing our part in helping to enable its widespread adoption.”
Emma Thompson, SOE chief executive, said: “Perhaps the most important element of our remit as a professional body is to promote safe, efficient, sustainable and ethical engineering operations to the benefit of society, and working alongside FleetCheck will enable us to deliver new initiatives in the crucial area of at-work road safety.
“We’re looking forward to forming a productive partnership and are pleased to see that plans for a number of initiatives that will benefit our members are well advanced.”
The SOE serves 16,000 qualified professionals who inspect, maintain, and manage machinery and equipment – from escalators to commercial vehicles whilst IRTE supports heavy goods and passenger service vehicle professionals, and encourages high standards in maintenance of sectors crucial to employment and public safety.
Wilson added that FleetCheck is already in conversation with several other major professional and trade bodies about forming similar partnerships:
“This is obviously something that could deliver commercial benefits for us in the long term but the impetus very much results from our ethical belief in the importance of promoting at-work road safety.”
Registration for the MPRS webinar is open here.
