Taxis and private hire drivers play a vital role in the United Kingdom’s transport system and according to statistics they help millions of passengers each year, getting them from A to B.
Currently there any many health and safety laws and regulations aiming to put a duty of care as show what is reasonably practicable to all private hire drivers and operators, but after a rigorous research throughout the last five years we put together a new idea which will be presented in this blog post.
Setting and following safety standards is not new for businesses and has been identified as a basic requirement for all organisations within public and private sectors by the Health and Safety Executive and the Institute of Directors. They provide a basic 10-point guidance check list that asks questions about how businesses are setting the bar for safety within the organisation.
It is agnostic about employment status and following the guidance is not self-obligatory, however by following it, organisations will normally be doing enough to help them meet their legal obligations.
Our research started five years ago and is based on the needs we identified throughout our background across the construction, mobility, technology, and recruitment industries. These are the industries we activate and running businesses that worth a turnover of 10 million of pounds together annually.
Safety as a Standard is a unique concept that intends to create, monitor, and enforce safety standards at all levels of a business within the private transportation industry.
We intend to deliver Safety as a Standard certifications as a benchmark for all private hire drivers and operators across the country.
We have a common background in being direct employers in the construction sector with weekly paid work forces of between 200 and 10,000 engaged on at least five different types of employment contracts.
The construction sector has been focusing on safety for the past 37 years and is highly regulated to resolve its fatalities and workplace injuries it has had to set safety standards to get improvement which the trending charts indicate. Despite these improved standards the fatal injury rate for the self-employed is more than double that for employees! Focusing and utilising safety as a core value we intend to create, monitor, and enforce safety standards, at all levels.
Our paradigm is to see businesses existing with safety as a core value, while setting “Safety as a Standard”, and with a moral responsibility to always protect its operators, and the public.
Safety as a Standard will continue its research, but meanwhile we will publish the standards we identified to better the safety culture within the private transportation industry, starting from the health and safety of the employees, subcontractors, customers and others related to the business to safety financial aspects.
How Safety as a Standard concept will certify, monitor, and enforce its core range catalogue of standards?
The Safety as a Standard is formed of a bespoke group of standards and each standard contains:
– Continue professional development training standards linked to the business’ activity
– Health and safety training according to the business’ activity
– Health and Safety Risk Assessment
– Financial Risk Assessment
– Professional consultancy in health and safety, business development, training
– Environmental awareness
– Equality, diversity and safeguarding
– Monitoring tools
How is Safety as a Standard built?
We are building ‘Safety as a Standard’ not only as a fundamental part of our own operations, ideation, and development processes, but also as a standard to be transmitted, absorbed and adapted by all Operators and Private Hire Drivers applying to be Safety as a Standard certified.
We see empowerment of both the certified SaaS business and its customers through active processes, with tools for reinforcement. We see commitment through the ability of all transactions and processes to be transparent. We see the building of a new culture based on trust and setting safety as a standard.
Our core values are:
- Support – Helping and promoting local businesses, whatever their starting point.
- Community – Working together to improve standards and increase trust.
- Improvement – Acting responsibly to reduce environmental impact
- Sustainability – Brining confidence back and militate for safer environment at all levels.
Our professional membership routes are opened to everybody within the private transportation industry, and they are divided into four categories:
- Affiliate Member (ASaaS) – this route is for all drivers wishing to be backed up by our professional standards. You will also get access to free resources and CPD programmes to make sure you are always comping with our standards.
- Members (MSaaS) – this route is for professionals who are in managing, supervision, and operational roles. Keep your team closer to our standards and get access to free courses and risk assessments.
- Corporate Member (CSaaS) – Get your entire organisation Safety as a Standard. You will be able to allocate ASaaS/ MSaaS for your employees, have access to free courses and resources. We also have risk assessment, policies, procedures, and quality assurance management consultancy services available.
- Chartered Member (CSaaS) – If you made a difference for the transportation industry you can join our board of chartered member, helping us keeping our professional standards up to date and in line with the trend and market needs. Basically, this route is for those fellows who are wishing to have a direct impact on our standards and development processes.
Get SaaS today. More information are available here – https://saas-org.co.uk/about-us/
