Directors endorse campaign at Risk in Fleet Conference

24 April 2009

Karen Diggle, Managing Director of Chamberlain Doors put driving safety clearly on the list of successes for small and medium sized enterprises.She was speaking about her firm’s total commitment to safety at the recent Risk in Fleet Conference in the presence of the Chairman of her Board of Directors, Roy Chamberlain, Chairman of the Chamberlain Group of Companies.

Chamberlain Doors, based at Blackrod near Bolton is the United Kingdom’s largest manufacturer of garage doors.Karen Diggle’s firm has recently recorded a million miles driven without a serious road traffic incident.Her presentation to the conference was a trailblazer for all other small and medium sized enterprizes on the importance and benefits of a corporate safety culture.

Safety begins on arrival in Chamberlain Doors’s car park.Visitors are instantly struck by the fact that all private cars and firm’s vehicles are neatly reverse parked in their bays.Karen Diggle believes that this procedure, begun some years ago on the advice of driver training professionals, has now been taken on by all members of staff as “a way of putting themselves in to a frame of mind focussed on safety the moment they arrive for work”.

Karen Diggle puts the firm’s success with its safety culture down to the full backing of her Board of Directors for the firm’s 3 key safety management actions – “Keep it simple!”; “Manage!” (Monitor, Review, Revise and Extend); and finally, “Never reinvent the wheel!”.

Chamberlain Doors looked hard at all aspects of their fleet’s performance to identify the main areas of risk which could affect their success.The firm then organised its internal systems to deliver clear policy, procedures and a process for briefing and passing on information to assist drivers in making better decisions.As a result, drivers feel personally committed to the firm’s safety standards and take pride in achieving them.The resulting million mile record is a unique achievement.

Karen Diggle stressed that there was also a significant financial benefit for the business.Chamberlain Doors now enjoyed a better Insurance Premium profile and improved fuel efficiency as a result of the introduction of the new programme.

This was a top-level, honest account of the value the United Kingdom’s leading supplier of garage doors attaches to safety in the business vehicle.She put across a robust case why businesses should support the Driving for Better Business campaign.“Our participation in the “Driving for Better Business” campaign has the full support of my Board and rewards our staff for their efforts in maintaining Chamberlain Doors’s unique record.It helps them understand that their commitment to safety very clearly promotes the success of our business.”

Rob Gifford, Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, the Conference Chair encouraged other small businesses to take note of Karen Diggle’s message.