Do all my construction vehicles need to comply with CLOCS?

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Mary Tinsley • Nov 01, 2017 • Construction

The Construction Logistics and Cyclist Safety Standard (CLOCS) sets out a series of individual requirements for logistic operators and construction clients. Each requirement is designed to help you manage work related road risk (WRRR), particularly in relation to the safety of vulnerable road users (VRUs).

If you manage a fleet of construction vehicles, you’re probably already familiar with CLOCS. But do you know what it means to stay compliant?

Whose responsibility is it to comply with CLOCS?

As part of your wider corporate responsibility, fleet managers have a moral obligation to ensure that the traffic servicing their site is correctly managed. This means using drivers that have received current, best-practice training, hold the correct licences for their vehicles, and are driving a vehicle that is both road-legal and safe for use on the public highway.

It is the developer’s responsibility to ensure that the CLOCS standard is adhered to on site, whereas the responsibility for maintaining the day-to-day running of this should fall to the principal contractor.

There is no specific CLOCS audit.  However, as outlined in section 3.1.1, “Fleet operators shall ensure the transport operation meets the standard of an approved independent fleet management audit” - this can be a FORS audit (or equivalent).

Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS)

Within the FORS Standard there are vehicle requirements, which align to London’s Safer Lorry Scheme requirements at FORS Bronze level and the CLOCS Standard (for vehicles delivering to construction sites) and Transport for London’s Work Related Road Risk policy at FORS Silver level.

Selecting contractors and subcontractors that are accredited to FORS Silver level or above will help to ensure that the vehicles and their drivers servicing the site will be CLOCS compliant.

However, this only applies to the operators servicing your site; FORS does not encompass the wider responsibilities that fleet managers have in managing the traffic servicing your site. FORS applies to your contractors, while CLOCS applies to your site operations as a whole.

Applicability and exemptions

The CLOCS Standard applies to all fleet operators serving contracts resulting in the use of vehicles for delivering to, collecting from or servicing a project, premises or property where this standard applies, unless otherwise indicated by the client. It is down to you to specify whether the CLOCS Standard applies within contracts based on your own assessment of risk.

There may be certain circumstances where you grant special exemptions for certain types of operation or vehicle but these should only be considered in exceptional situations and should be agreed between yourself and your contractor.

Ultimately, there is no legal requirement for all construction vehicles on a site to comply with the CLOCS standard. It really comes down to what risk assessment you have in place.

However, we have seen local authorities increasingly insisting that construction firms meet CLOCS standards if they are to work on construction sites, and many developers are also insisting on the same. Additionally, with many cities now moving to require CLOCS, it’s likely your company may need to comply – or find itself closed off from contracts.

If you would like to learn more about hiring CLOCS compliant construction vehicles, then do get in touch with one of our construction vehicles experts today.

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