A partnership with the Society of Operations Engineers (SOE) is the first in an initiative adopted by FleetCheck to promote at-work road safety.
The fleet software specialist said it aims to form relationships with professional and trade bodies to provide information and expertise on proactive risk management.
Initial activities planned with the SOE include a comprehensive guide to fleet safety fundamentals customised to the organisation’s needs.
Also, the Institute of Road Transport Engineers (IRTE), which is part of the SOE, recently 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 for its user base at 10am on 26th November to promote the initiative.
Barrie Wilson, commercial fleet consultant at FleetCheck, 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, chief executive at the SOE, 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 – both a limited company and registered charity – serves 16,000 qualified professionals who inspect, maintain, and manage machinery and equipment.
IRTE supports heavy goods and passenger service vehicle professionals throughout their careers, and encourages high standards in the maintenance of employment and public safety sectors.
Wilson added that FleetCheck was already in conversation with several other major professional and trade bodies about forming similar partnerships.
He said: “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.”
