This week is National Bike Week (5-11 June). This year marks the 100th annual bike week – dubbed Bike Week 100 – providing the ideal opportunity to get involved, even if it’s your first time doing so.
Using cycling as an alternative to other forms of transport is not only beneficial to the environment, but it’s also great for mental wellbeing too. Cycling gets us outdoors in the fresh air, exercising and letting off a bit of steam. Other benefits include:
National Bike Week is delivered by Cycling UK, a national cycling charity dedicated to promoting and advocating cycling as a means of transportation, recreation and sport. This year’s event is celebrating the power of active travel for businesses and us all.
Cycling UK is setting a series of challenges as part of the Bike Week 100 celebrations, highlighting the benefits more cycling can bring to our health, our finances, our communities and the natural world.
Road safety has never been more important. Each year, more than 100 cyclists die on UK roads, meaning they make up around 6% of all road deaths. In 2021, 4,353 cyclists were reported as seriously injured. This is why it is imperative that as motorists, we are vigilant whilst driving and keep an extra eye out for those on bikes.
Road and cycle safety is always a top priority for TJ. Our fleet of lorries are frequent road users, but all of our drivers are advocates for cycle safety. As part of our commitment to managing work related road risk (WRRR), particularly regarding vulnerable road users such as cyclists, we created our Cycle Safe Campaign in 2016 to raise awareness of the issue and reduce the HGV / cyclist dangers.
The initiatives implemented as part of the campaign are:
Since the introduction of the Cycle Safe campaign, TJ has won two awards. The first was a national award for leading the way with cycle safety. The accolade was awarded by CEMEX, a leader in the building materials industry.
We also won the Transport for London Award for reducing occupational road risk for the company’s drivers. Criteria for the award included showing how technology, management systems and behavioural initiatives can reduce road accidents.
We recently maintained our FORS Silver accreditation for the sixth consecutive year, confirming our status as one of the leading SME transport companies in the southern region. FORS (Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme) silver accreditation is awarded to operators that maintain Bronze accreditation and have developed driver licensing verification systems.
To further meet the strict criteria, vehicles over 3.5 tonnes must be equipped with a left-turn audible warning system and fitted with blind-spot minimisation devices. We also have to provide annual evidence that we are doing a number of things including:
Find out more about our Cycle Safe campaign, our FORS Silver Status and be sure to get involved in National Bike Week 2023!
