Newsletter Issue 1 2021
Stronger together “ At the heart of our success last year and key to our continued success is our employees.”
What’s inside Around the Group - Welcome Class One Champion Our Customers - Wessex Water Case Study Area 9 Charity Challenge Getting to Know Lauren Barlow and Roger Player Better Never Stops - The Academy Update
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Welcome Message from Tim Cockayne Welcome to our first newsletter of 2021, following a rollercoaster 2020. Who would have believed how the events of last year played out? COVID-19 forced us to change and adapt our daily business routines so we could continue to trade. We also had to deal with several setbacks, including the tragic loss of our second longest serving employee, Brian Gay, who unfortunately fell victim to this awful disease. Despite these setbacks, everyone across the Chevron Group pulled together, faced the challenges head on and made 2020 a record year for growth, which is incredible given the circumstances. Turning to 2021, this theme has continued, with another national lockdown. Once again, we have risen to the challenges this presents. For the parents among us, it has meant a return to home-schooling which is not easy, especially when you are trying to balance your own work while supporting your children. As the father of a nineyear-old boy, I fully appreciate the efforts you are making and want to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued commitment.
service and delivery through Type A schemes and further set us apart from our competitors. Well done to all those involved!
“Chevron Group pulled together, faced the challenges head on and made 2020 a record year for growth.” As a company and to me personally, our social value agenda is crucial to our ongoing success. In recognition of the challenges home-schooling has placed on disadvantaged children and their families, we have donated more than 40 tablets and laptops to support remote learning in several primary schools, including Bentley West PS, in the West Midlands and Knowl Hill PS in Berkshire. The teachers say that these donations are making a big difference to their pupils’ learning and we hope to offer this help to other schools very soon. In addition, Martin Johnson, our Area 9 Delivery Manager, has led a team to create an amazing sensory garden for pupils at Bentley West PS. Making a positive contribution to the local communities we operate in is the kind of legacy we can be proud of and is something to encourage more of in the future.
In addition, 2021 has already seen us achieve excellence, winning the Highways Magazine ‘Product of the Year Award’, for HRS’s Dynamic Speed Signs. These have the potential to revolutionise the way we manage safety, customer
If you weren’t able to join our latest spotlight session, where Martin talks in detail about this project, then I would encourage you to watch the recording on The Academy. Tim Cockayne CEO
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Area 9 SRN Alliance Charity Challenge Supporting our communities A massive congratulations goes out to Chevron TM’s Area 9 team who are part of an award-winning alliance! Led by Martin Johnston, our Area 9 Delivery Manager, Chevron TM took part in the Area 9 SRN Alliance Charity Challenge December. It raised thousands of pounds for local charities and left a lasting legacy at Bentley West Primary School in Walsall. The teachers and pupils now have a wonderful outside learning area. The team, which included Highways England, Tarmac, AC Landscape and Treeworks, Kier and Chevron TM, revamped a neglected pond area close to the school. The team planted 15 trees, installed planters, created a wheelchair accessible pathway and built a stunning pagoda and benches for the pupils. Martin was joined by Chevron TM operatives, Brian Lowe, Mazer Hussain and Alan Dubickas who all did a fantastic job.
Martin returned to the school in January to donate 10 laptops and Chevron goodie bags to pupils to support home schooling during this current lockdown. The impact of the project and the laptops donation was summed up by Bentley West PS Teacher Lindsay Hobbs who said that: “the work and development in the forest area by the Area 9 team will accomplish improvement that I could not have achieved without significant support and this means the forest will be healthier and more sustainable for the children of Bentley in the future. The laptops really will be of great benefit to our families in need.” Congratulations to Martin, Brian, Mazer and Alan on a job well done!
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Getting to know…
Lauren Barlow Northern Regional Director (Non-SRN) family of work colleagues who all pull together to get the job done no matter what. What has been your greatest challenge?
“You can’t beat that family of work colleagues who all pull together to get the job done no matter what” How long have you been working in the TM industry? Since 2010. My parents bought the business when it went into administration. They were only interested in the property but ended up with the business! In March 2010, their accountant told them that it was going into administration. This was on the Tuesday. We managed to hand the papers into court by one minute to 4 on the Thursday of the same week, the deadline was 4pm. We took over on Friday 1st April 2010.
How has the industry changed since you joined? As everyone says probably safety is the biggest thing even in just nine years. Systems and digital are probably where I have seen the biggest changes in my roles. What has been your biggest achievement to date? Being part of what the business has become. It has been a lot of work over the nine years, a lot of tears and stress but to achieve what we did, knowing nothing about traffic management was amazing. None of it would have been possible without the people at Retford and Leeds. You can’t beat that
This year and COVID–19. Everyone who has worked with me will tell you I took it hard when we saw the impact COVID–19 was having on our business. Seeing something you’re so passionate about and have worked so hard to build, take such a hit was painful. Putting people on furlough was heart breaking. I wasn’t sure where we were going to get the work from. However, so much good came from it. We built better relationships with teams around us. We came together and pushed through and despite losing a major part of our business we have still succeeded. Tell us something that most people wouldn’t know about you. I’m quite a boring person really. I live for my family and work. I used to have horses and compete. My grandmother was Italian (probably where my temper comes from)! How would you describe yourself in 3 words Ha ha I think everyone would agree with me if I say emotional! Also loving and nervous.
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Getting to know… Roger Player Utilities Sector Director How long have you been working in TM industry?
What has been your greatest challenge?
29 years!
Learning to understand people better! Every day is a school day!
How did you get into TM? After I completed a heating & plumbing apprenticeship, I had an opportunity to start a Traffic Light Hire business with help from my family. It fairly quickly became essential to complement this with much wider TM services.
Tell us something that most people wouldn’t know about you. I once met Diana Ross at Geneva airport (at excess baggage claim)
What do you get up to in your spare time, outside of work? Gym, fitness, yoga but mostly I just love riding mountain bikes! I consider myself very fortunate as mountain biking has taken me to some incredible & beautiful places. I met Sandra – my partner and pretty much all my best friends through this activity and the adventures I have been on.
How has the industry changed since you joined? The focus on safety is rightly now the first and main priority which wasn’t the case back in 1992! We also only had completely unsilenced diesel generators, cables and cable mats for powering and connecting traffic lights back then! What has been your biggest achievement to date? My daughter Jessica – you might say I am a late-starter! Also, refusing to give up when things (quite often) don’t go as planned.
“The focus on safety is rightly now the first and main priority”
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Champion our customers Client focus In each newsletter, we will highlight a client contract that we have secured. In this issue, we have chosen WESSEX WATER. Client Focus: WESSEX WATER
Sun Traffic has worked with Wessex Water for the past 10 years which has helped establish a trusted and long-term relationship. They worked with Wessex Water to forge TM plans for all utilities works across the region which included the introduction of digital services like the intelligent traffic light systems. We were delighted when Sun TM, now part of Chevron TM secured the contract again in 2020 in the face of intense competition. Since the relationship began with Wessex Water, we have completed 30,000 deliveries with 99% delivered within the target timelines and a 99% attendance.
Wessex Water is a regional water and sewerage business with almost 3 million customers across the south west of England. Having worked with a range of suppliers across the region, Wessex Water were looking to consolidate all their purchasing and ordering functions in order to gain cost and operational efficiencies. This included traffic management where they wanted to appoint a single, trusted provider that met all their requirements.
30,000 99%
99%
Deliveries completed
Attendance
Delivered within target timelines
Newsletter Issue 1 2021
What our clients think We have heard it said on many occasions that our employees are the best in the business and there’s no-one in the Chevron Group who would disagree. However, it is nice to hear what our clients think. This is a fantastic achievement from all involved and a true reflection of the attitude and outstanding effort that runs throughout the group.
Can you please send on our thanks and appreciation to Chevron higher management for how accommodating Chevron Manchester have been and especially Morgan in particular since we have moved into their compound. Nothing has been too much trouble and they go over and above to assist with everything from the start of us being here. Mark Krall, Works Superintendent, Costain
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I just wanted to drop you a line to let you know I am aware of the actions that your TSCO Chris Latham undertook on the incident detailed on the Airsweb entry below. An elderly couple, towing a caravan, broke down and were very anxious about their situation. Unbelievably, their recovery firm took over 6 and a half hours to get to them but it seems Chris took very good care of them during this time, reassuring the couple and keeping pressure on the recovery firm to ensure they eventually got recovered. As you are aware ‘customer’ is one of our 3 key imperatives and it is excellent customer service like this that we strive to receive from our supply chain. Please pass my personal thanks on to Chris for his actions that night, both myself and the rest of the Highways England team greatly appreciate his customer focus. Gary Knowles, Head of Scheme Delivery, NW Operations, Highways England
I am writing to express my thanks and appreciation for the huge effort made by everyone working on the M62 smart motorway project. Reaching the important milestone of opening all four lanes to traffic by the end of March matters greatly to Highways England, but more importantly it delivers on our commitments to the travelling public to provide this additional capacity on these important routes. I understand what a challenge this has been over the last few months and recognise that you will each have gone above and beyond to make it happen. It is only when we all work together towards a common objective that major projects like these are successful, and I think by meeting these commitments you have each shown how we can make good things happen when we work in this way. Peter Mumford, Highways England
Hi James Please pass on our sincere thanks to them all for their help, our video filming on the project would not have been possible without them. They were all great and it’s a real pleasure to have Chevron TM working alongside BMJV in what has been a challenging project, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic period. Thanks again Lance Donkin, Safety Coach, M62 J10-12 Morgan Sindall
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New look New look At the end of last year, we rebranded TMS and Sun Traffic to the new Chevron Traffic Management brand. 1st December was D-Day when they became Chevron Traffic Management Limited. This involved rebranding vehicles, depots, PPE workwear and systems. We also redeveloped our website to include a broad range of non-SRN content, reflecting our growing Low Speed businesses. Check out our new website on: www.chevrontm.com. To mark the rebrand, we produced a new set of Chevron TM “merch” which was handed out to employees at the rebranded businesses on 1st December. This has gone down a treat with employees as our photos show and has since been issued to all Chevron TM employees. As part of the rebrand, the Marketing Team is now working on rebranding our fleet. Designs for the vehicles are being worked on as we speak, with plans to rebrand existing vehicles and roll-out a new fleet of vehicles over the next few months. Watch this space! To celebrate the rebrand, we produced a new Chevron Group video which shows our scale and capability and of course, the fantastic people who work at Chevron. If you haven’t already seen it, it is available on The Academy or via this QR Code.
It would not have been possible to complete the mammoth job without the support of so many people across the group. We would like to thank everyone involved! It was a true reflection of the Chevron values in action.
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On the move On the move Great news for employees at our Wantage and Black Bourton depots who will be relocating to new premises later in the year. We have signed a lease for a new yard at Stanton Harcourt Industrial Estate in Witney, Oxfordshire which will give us a larger facility to accommodate the Low-Speed TM operations from Wantage and arboriculture services from Black Bourton. Groundworks have already started and it is expected that the move will begin over the next few months with the new premises fully operational by summer. We will keep you up to date as work progresses.
We’re Moving!
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Around the Group ACones 2020 started for us like a lot of other businesses, looking forward to growing the business and reinforce our market position. And then of course COVID-19 hit! In March, with the impact of lockdown, we needed to change the way we work. With fantastic support from group functions (Health and Safety & ESG) we managed to adjust the way we work to protect our workers and increase operating capacity. The introduction of our COVID-19 cleaning service has become very successful with new enquiries coming in daily.
”Our arboriculture services continue to grow and we are looking forward to a busy 2021.”
Our arboriculture services continue to grow and we are looking forward to a busy 2021. Our plan is to gain new customers and expand our operation to provide nationwide support. We also plan to offer “package work” to Chevron TM clients to include vegetation clearance, gully cleaning, road sweeping and tree cutting. Despite lockdown we achieved our ISO certifications. With remote BSI audits carried out as planned, A Cones is now operating in line with our other traffic management businesses.
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Better never stops The Academy In keeping with our commitment to invest in our people, Chevron Group launched The Academy in August 2020. We caught up with Claire Brough, our Knowledge and Skills Manager, who was the driving force behind the launch and continued development of The Academy. So what is The Academy? The Academy is a learning platform, designed to help you develop your career in Chevron Group. It offers learning opportunities including mandatory training which is required to ensure that our employees are fully compliant. It also offers optional courses which individuals can choose to undertake to read for their own personal development. Who should use The Academy? Everyone within the organisation should be using The Academy. We heard Matt Morphet, our Chief Operating Officer, say in his Spotlight Session that he is addicted to The Academy. He is constantly doing courses and training to improve his knowledge and understanding of the business. Matt is one of our most senior executives. If he is learning through The Academy, then we all could and should be! How can employees access The Academy? Employees access the platform through their company email address from a company or personal device. If you don’t have an email, contact IT Support and they will provide you with one. The platform is personal and password protected so no-one else can access your account.
New employees will be directed to The Academy to complete the mandatory company induction prior to taking up their new positions. Can employees get involved in creating content for The Academy? We would love to hear from employees! There is an opportunity on the platform to provide feedback on content and courses. We’ve already had some great feedback which has been fantastic. This helps us to tailor the courses and ensure that we are giving employees the training and development opportunities that you want. If you haven’t already logged onto the Academy, you should check it out. It is a fabulous platform.
+3,000 1,150
Courses completed Courses underway
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Social Value Mobile devices to support home-schooling
“Supporting the communities in which we live and work is vitally important for us.” Chevron Traffic Management and our Chairman, Matthew Turner, have donated mobile tablets to Knowl Hill CofE Academy in Berkshire to support online education during lockdown. Speaking about the initiative, Mr Turner, commented: “Home-schooling has presented many challenges to parents and teachers as many of our parents know only too well. Remote learning has highlighted serious disadvantages for vulnerable children who don’t have access to laptops, mobile phones or devices. Supporting the communities in which we live and work is vitally important for us. We are delighted to provide a number of refurbished and new devices which we hope will help children get the most of their online learning and make the jobs of their parents and teachers easier.” Nichole Bourner, Head of School said “The school and our teachers are working exceptionally hard to maintain our normal high standards of teaching whilst our children remain at home. This donation will make a significant difference to our pupils and the wider community. We are incredibly grateful to Chevron TM and their chairman for this kind and generous donation.”
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Around the Group Welcome to Class One Class One Traffic Management recently joined Chevron TM. Company founders, Mike Healey and Catherine Tulloch share an overview of the history, operations and hopes for the future. “Class One is the largest independent traffic management company in Scotland. We started out 30 years ago and today we employ 175 personnel from our 4.5 acre premises in the heart of central Scotland. From here we service all areas of Scotland, although the majority of our demand is in central belt. Most of our current work falls into low speed. However, we carry out a number of highspeed projects, including the new Queensferry Crossing, which sits alongside the Forth Road Bridge, M73, M74 and M8 Upgrade and Edinburgh Trams. In addition, our day-to-day business sees us supplying TM to the water, gas, telecoms, and power utility industries.
A high proportion of our staff have worked with us for many years. We have a wonderful team of dedicated and committed people, without whom we would not be able to provide the high level of service our customers have come to expect. During the process of becoming part of the Chevron Group family, we were able to visit a number of your offices. We were extremely impressed with the people we met and their depth of knowledge of our industry. We are the newest member of the Group, but as the most northernly members of the family, we are looking forward to being part of what we consider the best traffic management provider in the UK.”
“We are looking forward to being part of what we consider the best traffic management provider in the UK.”
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A winning team Highways Industry Product of the Year The partnership between Chevron TM and HRS was in the spotlight recently when we won the Highways Industry Product of the Year for our Dynamic Speed Sign at the annual Highways Awards. This is a fantastic achievement, particularly given that we were up against 7 other companies from across the highways industry. The judging panel described our Dynamic Speed Sign as “a true example of innovation and collaboration.” and it is indeed a testament to the hard work, commitment and partnership from Chevron TM and HRS employees. Since its launch it has been used on the M6 J2-4 SMP and on the M4, M62, M20 and M23 Smart Motorway Projects. In fact, it has been operational for over one million hours on projects across our motorway network, which again is a reflection of the tremendous effort from all involved.
Many of our operatives and operational employees will be familiar with our Dynamic Speed Signs but for anyone not aware of the product, it is a revolutionary speed sign which can remotely change the speed displayed at road works. It removes the need for operatives to be present to check or change speed signs which improves safety. It also improves journey times during road works as speeds can be increased to 60mph when there are no workers present. Winning this award is an exceptional achievement. It sets us apart from our competitors and puts us at the head of the game in terms of digital innovation. We want to thank everyone for helping us achieve this success. It is a team effort and one that everyone in HRS and Chevron TM should be very proud of. Thank you to a winning team!
”Winning this award is an exceptional achievement. It sets us apart from our competitors and puts us at the head of the game in terms of digital innovation.”
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Safety is our business Safety is our business 2020 certainly wasn’t a year we were expecting but thanks to everyone we have achieved over 9 million manhours riddor-free which is an excellent achievement. The biggest cause of incidents are manual handling and slips, trips and falls so we still have some work to do in this area.
aiders. You will find information and contact numbers throughout your depots. We also have the Employee Assistance programme number which can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week if you would like to speak to someone in confidence.
Each month we have a ‘safety We have introduced more safety award’ given to individuals who reps within the depots and you have gone over and beyond our values. If you would like will see a poster of their smiley to nominate someone please faces in your depot. Please say speak to your line manager. hello – they are there to assist and support you. Additional Throughout 2020 we had safety rep training will be over 1,500 observations introduced this year via The raised, which helps us identify Academy. We now have over additional hazards and prevent 30 trained mental health first accidents – the top 5 were:
Site incursion Equipment strike Communication Poor planning Contractors not following site safety rules
1,500 Observations raised
30 Trained mental health first aiders
9 million Man hours riddor-free
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Around the Group Contact us If you have any news stories, want further information on any subject or have any queries, please contact our Group Marketing and Communications Manager Lisa Killinger Lisa.Killingerchevrontm.com
Chevron Traffic Management, 3 Thame Business Park, Wenman Road, Thame, Oxon, OX9 3XA 01844 354666
Visit us on the web at www.chevrontm.com Follow us on Twitter @ChevronTM Find us on Yammer Join the discussion on LinkedIn Like us on Facebook, Chevron Traffic Management Ltd Search for us on Instagram @chevrontraffic management
Absent friends The challenges of 2020 were made even more difficult with the loss of two wonderful colleagues and friends who are and will always be sadly missed.
Paul Booth TMS Yard Supervisor, Paul Booth passed away on 22nd May 2020, having lost his battle against Cancer. Paul was one of TMS’ longest serving employees having worked there for 31 years. He was dedicated, passionate and loved his work. He took exceptional pride in the quality of his work and what he didn’t know just would not have been worth knowing. He also worked as a Supervisor on Major Events and was heavily relied on by the Events team to deliver a high standard. Paul took new employees under his wing to share his knowledge and ensure that they were fully trained. Many of our existing employees were trained by Paul. Paul was a well-respected member of the team who is deeply missed.
Brian Gay In April, Brian Gay from our Finedon depot sadly passed away, having lost his battle against COVID-19. Brian was one of our two longest serving employees having worked for Chevron for 22 years. He will be deeply missed. He was an exemplary foreman and someone who took exceptional pride in the quality of his work, often receiving praise from our customers and the sites in which he worked. He was a polite, wellmannered and well-respected member of the team who is deeply missed by the friends and colleagues who worked alongside him.