🚜 Sharpen Your Skills at the AFI & AFA Best Practice Day! 🔥

Join us on 30th April at Harper Adams University for a full day of hands-on training, expert insights, and top-tier demonstrations from national & international fencing competition winners!

💡 What’s in store?
✅ Master wood & steel fencing techniques with focused workstations
✅ Learn straining, knot tying & wire work from the best in the industry
✅ Get expert advice on business finance, estimating & rural crime prevention
✅ Discover how to safely navigate underground services with LineWatch
✅ Keep yourself & your team in top shape with wellbeing insights

🍽️ Bacon roll on arrival & a hearty lunch included!

🎟 Tickets £15 to cover catering costs – available HERE!

Proudly supported by Tornado Wire, Scanpole & Fetra. Don’t miss out – book your place today!

 

Driving for Better Business – new fleet safety focus update

Safe Loading

Driving is for the most people the most dangerous activity they can do.

It should go without saying that any load on your vehicle must be legal – in other words, not overloaded – and secure.

And remember, ‘load’ refers to anything being carried, including any tools or materials for use by the driver as part of their role – such as an engineer, for example.

Overloading can significantly affect the way a vehicle handles, especially in an emergency – and insecure loads can kill.

It’s vital that, as an organisation and as a manager or owner, you are confident that your drivers are trained, and understand the need to secure loads, how to secure loads, and how to correctly use and secure all the equipment this might involve.

If someone else has loaded the vehicle, the driver must check the load security.

You and your drivers both have a responsibility under Regulation 100 of the Road Vehicles (Construction & Use) Regulations 1986 to to be confident that your loads are properly secured. Insecure loads are seen as a priority road offence – because they are so dangerous – and drivers and their vehicles can be prohibited by the enforcement agencies.

So, how confident are you that your drivers can handle load safety with the proper instruction and equipment?

Driving for Better Business in collaboration with the National Highways Commercial Vehicle Incident Prevention Team are providing free to access resources to help those who manage and employ drivers. Their Fleet Safety Focus Updates cover an important area every month. This month’s update focuses on Safe Loading and the risks around unsafe loads

It includes a link to a file of useful resources for you to download and share with your drivers, including:

• An article to share with your drivers on Safe Loading
• Short safety messages on Safe Loading to send to your drivers on their devices
• Safe Loading posters for your staff noticeboards
• Information sheets from our Van Driver Toolkit on Safe Loading and Stowage

Access this month’s Fleet Safety Focus and watch the video here.

Make sure you and your staff are familiar with the AFI Van Driver Toolkit booklet, included in your AFI membership pack – pages 46 & 47 for this month’s feature on safe loading.

If you need further copies please contact info@theafi.co.uk

Grenfell Tower Inquiry Response

The Government’s response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s final report confirms its commitment to taking forward the work required to address the recommendations and deliver a “profound change in culture and behaviour from those who develop procure, design, build and manage buildings…as well as the Government, its bodies and wider institutions”.

The recommendations include appointing a Chief Construction Adviser, who will lead the work to design the model for a single construction regulator, reviewing the definition of a Higher‐Risk Building (HRB), and introducing a licensing scheme for Principal Contractors working on HRBs. Build UK has been invited to meet with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to present the Common Assessment Standard, which is already used by over 21,000 suppliers to demonstrate organisational capability. The Common Assessment Standard is also recognised in the Construction Products Reform Green Paper, published alongside the response, which sets out proposals to reform the construction products regime. The Government confirms it will continue to support the use of the Common Assessment Standard for pre‐qualification, which “can enable firms to demonstrate the competence and capability to meet the requirements of the regulations”.

Changes in response to the recommendations will be delivered using a ‘three‐phased approach’ over the course of this Parliament. The first phase between now and 2026 will focus on delivering the current programme of regulatory reform, the second phase from 2026 to 2028 will develop proposals to deliver the recommendations, and the third phase from 2028 onwards will focus on their implementation.