Hermes House
Page 30
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
TUNBRIDGE WELLS has been home to the Freight Transport Association for a year. It has been twelve months which have seen changes and improvements to the services provided for the own account operator.
The main impact of the move from the former Croydon base to Hermes House in the Royal and Ancient Borough of Tunbridge Wells has been felt in the field of training.
Since moving house the FTA has set up a new training school to offer courses that could help anyone from the novice transport manager to the old hand who merely needs a refresher.
Training is done on a 'members only' basis at present and the subjects cover a vast range of transport related topics under the watchful eye of headmaster Mr Alan Kevan, MA's training officer.
Mr Kevan told CM: "There was nothing here to start with in training — so whatever is added is an improvement." He says training is becoming an increasingly vital part of the transport world.
The idea for the school was Mr Kevan's. It came from his first report to the FTA as its training adviser. "People are the most important assets in a business and training is an economic activity which must pay off." It is nearly six years now since that first report and the idea of having a training school attached to the FTA and it is the move to Tunbridge that has allowed it to prosper.
Training was a major factor in the buying of Hermes House, home to the FTA. "We wanted a building that we could convert to a training school rather than keep having courses in hotels all over the country," said Mr Gutteridge.
"A lot of the papers at the courses are given by FTA staff and in order to keep them away from the office as little as possible they were having all their sessions lumped together on a course so that they could get away.
"This put a strain on the men and cost us a lot of time," said Mr Gutteridge. Now staff men can take a five minute walk across the car park to the purpose built training school with its classroom and syndicate rooms.
Courses have also been run for FTA staff on subjects that will help them in their jobs — and staff have been the guinea pigs for a new course designed to be near to the Transport Managers Licence course of the future.
Despite its opposition to plans for the TML to extend to the own account sector, FTA has still made preparations to offer courses for its members to get through the Royal Society of Arts examinations — when they come.
Tunbridge Wells was picked as the new base with several factors in mind. High on the list was staff location and as a result of this, few of the management team had to move house and continuity was maintained.
But secretarial staff changed with the move almost entirely with just a few of the secretarial staff moving down to Tunbridge for a few weeks after the move to settle the organisation into their new home.
Mr Gutteridge said that moving out of London was a result of considering all the commercial reasons for any move. Office costs were rising — and still are — at an astronomical rate as working and travelling conditions became steadily worse.
Now with London an hour and a quarter away discipline has come for those trips into town which combine missions and make more use of time.
"We tend to package together meetings and visits to get a much more economical use of time." Distance is no problem and communications with the capital are good by train or motorway.
The fact that FTA owns its own building has had a very good effect on the morale of the staff. "We have a sense of pride about the place and of course there are the benefits of improved working conditions through being based here," said Mr Gutteridge, Many members have been to Tunbridge Wells to see the new offices since the move. Committees that once met in London have been holding their meetings in Kent and taking the opportunity to have a look at their new headquarters at the same time — and they were impressed.
"It's easier for the members to come here, there's more parking and it's much easier for many of the members to reach than a London office," said Mr Gutteridge.
Effects of the move from Croydon on such services as the vehicle inspection teams have been limited. "You can run a team of inspectors from anywhere," said Mr Gutteridge.
The move was done smoothly one weekend in October last year. Now the FTA has the feeling that it has never been anywhere else.
"The whole thing has gone very well, it really doesn't seem as though we have been here a year — but on the other hand it seems that we have never really been anywhere else," said Mr Gutteridge.
Happiness, it seems, is a contented office.