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System & Hargreaves Merge to Form UK's Largest Logistics Training Company
Tuesday 17th August 2010
The New Company Will Provide Driver CPC Training and Apprenticeships to the Logistics Industry and Work With Logistics Providers, Sector Skills Councils, Funding Bodies and Trade Organisations to Develop Skills in The Industry
- A short video interview with Robin Brown and Ian Peacock is available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG3gtDQDnqs <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG3gtDQDnqs> .
The largest logistics training company in the UK has been created following the decision of the country's two leading providers to merge.
System Training and Hargreaves Training Services have combined to form a business that will operate from a national footprint of 20 training centres, and will have a workforce of over 300 employees. The consolidated turnover of the new entity is £16m - and is predicted to double over the next three years.
While the two existing companies will continue to operate on a standalone basis until a re-brand brings them both under the same banner, in the long-term the new combined firm will look to build upon an existing customer base that includes national retailers, logistics providers and hundreds of SME clients and owner-drivers nationally. Training will be offered to a wider range of industries including road transport, logistics, motor vehicle repair, accountancy, health & safety and construction.
The combined business will have a much broader strength and product offering, allowing greater access to both regional and national delivery profiles and new training markets.
Robin Brown, founder and current Chief Executive of System Training will head the new company as Chief Executive. Ian Peacock, the current Managing Director of Hargreaves Training Services will become Chief Operating Officer of the new business. Key personnel from both System Training and Hargreaves Training Services will form the new management team.
Road hauliers and transport companies will benefit from the merger by being able to take advantage of high quality training via a nationally recognised network that actually makes a real and tangible difference to their operations and profitability.
As the clear leader in the market, the merged company will be the UK's largest provider of Driver CPC solutions. It will work towards delivering Driver CPC training to over 100,000 drivers annually through direct contact training and instructor models and will also deliver ADR, FLT and training for HGV licences.
The new business is also ideally placed to deliver Apprenticeships to young people nationally in line with the Government's agenda. These will include Apprenticeships in Logistics, Motor Vehicle and Accountancy. The business will aspire to deliver Apprenticeships to thousands of young people across the UK.
Major stakeholders such as the Skills Funding Agency, the National Apprenticeship Service and the Department for Work and Pensions will benefit from the enhanced capability of the combined business via the achievement of real skills development on a larger scale. It will offer a significant support mechanism to help accelerate the objectives of sector skills councils, such as Skills for Logistics and Go Skills, and in particular will support the aims and objectives of the national and regional logistics academies.
Robin Brown, Chief Executive of System Training, said:
"This is an exciting time for everyone at System Training as the new business will be considerably stronger than the two individual companies and allow us to offer an enhanced service to our clients and provide training to new markets. System Training will now be able to offer its award-winning Driver CPC training model, which has already saved clients millions of pounds, on a national basis. The new business will also provide opportunities to work closely with sector skills councils to support them and help them achieve their objectives."
Ian Peacock, Manager Director of Hargreaves Training Services, said:
"We are bringing our strong regional and national presence to the new business and the company will now be able to offer a greater number of services to a larger geographical area. Hargreaves has extensive experience in work-focused training and up-skilling both employed and unemployed people. But this new entity will have a real strength in delivering training and developing skills in line with nationally recognised policies and will benefit clients, stakeholders and the logistics industry as a whole."
Celebrating 10 Years as an Investors in People Organisation
Investors in People UK have awarded Hargreaves Training Ltd, a certificate celebrating the fact that we have been recognised as an Investor in People for over 10 years.
This is a fantastic achievement demonstrating an ongoing dedication to people and commitment to continuous business improvement. We have joined a select but growing group of over 3,000 organisations, representative businesses of all sizes and sectors who have achieved such a significant milestone and enjoyed the benefit of successive Investors in People reviews for a decade or more.
VOSA Pledge no further stations to close
VOSA has confirmed there are currently no futher test stations earmarked for closure as the first Authorised Testing Facilities (ATF) went live this week. TruckEast's Wellingborough, Northants facility officially began trading as an ATF on Monday 15th February, after the Scania dealer became the first of the three firms to sign the ATF contract last month.
The site was previously operated as a Designated Premises (DP). Since the ATF contract was launched on the 27th January, VOSA says it has had 12 further businesses download the contract from its Business Link website six of which are from existing DPs and has a pipeline of more than 100 "serious expressions of interest". Asked if the agency is preparing to close more VOSA run test stations now that the ATF strategy is moving forward, VOSA's testing transformation programme director, Richard Smith, tells Roadtransport.com: "Genuinely not this is a guarantee."
"But if, say, by June, we've got 100 ATFs located around a certain VOSA station, and there's almost no tests coming through that station, we would have to say to the Department for Transport that this station is under utilised and we'd need to plan what we are going to do about it".
Smith is keen to stress that VOSA is not in the business of just closing stations down. He says: "If a truck dealer opens an ATF in an area, it does not mean the local VOSA station will automatically close; there are many more subtleties to it than that."
VOSA Chief Executive Alistair Peoples adds that "ATF's are not about site closures" but admits site closures may well be a "consequence of tests migrating away from some of our VOSA run test stations".
"Where there is more than adequate provision in an area we may look at downsizing, removing or even relocating our VOSA presence," states Peoples.
Meanwhile, VOSA is hopeful that at least one DP or ATF will open over the next couple of months in the region around the Steeton, West Yorks test station which is closing on 31 March.
19th February 2010
FTA state fuel duty rise causes inflation spike
The Freight Transport Association (FTA) has citicised the government for causing a spike in inflation through successive increases in fuel tax,
The UK inflation rate rose to 3.5% in January the fastest annual pace for 14 months up from 2.9% in December 2009, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI)
In a letter to the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, the Bank of England Governor Mervyn King blamed the rise on petrol price inflation caused by the restoration of VAT to 17.5% as well as a 70% rise in oil prices.
Jo Tanner, Communications Director at the FTA said, inflation had risen largely off the back of rising fuel costs to transport goods: "Fuel accounts for more than 30% of overall transport costs, and these costs trickle down to the services and businesses that rely on the logistics sector simply to run". "It is an anathema then, to increase the tax imposed on the cost of a tank of diesel during a recession," she insists, "especially when the actual price of a barrel of oil has doubled - yet this is precisely what the government has done and is committed to doing in the future"
19th February 2010
Warning to Drivers of CPC exemption Card Scam
The Vehicle Operator Service Agency (VOSA) have been advising drivers that they do not need to purchase a card being promoted on the internet to prove they are exempt from the Driver Certification of Professional Competence (CPC) periodic training requirements & regulations.
The warning follows the implementation of Driver CPC legislation for LGV drivers in the freight industry on the 10th September 2009 which has led to the promotion & offer to purchase an exemption card available on the internet for £49. This card is being described as the ‘Driver Qualification Exemption Card' or DQEC. The card has no validity whatsoever, is NOT required by VOSA, DSA, or any other agency and should be viewed as a just another scam to extract money from unsuspecting victims.
Under the current legislation drivers who gain their initial Driver CPC after 10th September 2008, Passenger Carrying Vehicles (PCV), or 10th September 2009, Large Goods Vehicles (LGV), are required to complete four modules before they are eligible for their Driver Qualification Card which must be kept with their driving licence. To retain the Driver CPC 35 hours of periodic training must be completed within a 5 year period.
A wide range of JAUPT accredited 3.5hrs and 7hrs modules that meet these new periodic training requirements are available from Hargreaves Training Services.
Euro CV Registration decline for the 17th Month running
For the past 17 months European CV's have been on a decline according to the figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association.
Throughout September registrations have declined by 27.7% against year on year figures. Some of the worst hit markets in Europe have been Heavy trucks over 16 tonnes which have seen a significant decline of 42.2%. Vans under 3.5 tonnes were down 25.4%, while vans over 3.5 tonnes are down 39.4%.
However the UK has seen a shift in this trend as heavy trucks have seen an increase year on year by 26.8%. However Germany and Italy had seen declines of 55%, and France and Spain have also suffered similarly with declines of 49.1% and 36.6%.
