A-Plant is committed to maintaining the highest
standards of corporate responsibility across all of its businesses. We place a
high priority on compliance with all legislative and regulatory requirements,
and on the maintenance of high ethical standards, across the Group. We seek
continually to improve our performance in terms of employee development and
health and safety in particular, as without the highest standards in these
areas, our business model simply would not work.
Employees
Our employees are our greatest asset and we
place enormous value on the welfare and commitment of our employees as well as
the superior level of service they provide for our customers. Our employees all
benefit from extensive on the job training schemes and are highly incentivised
to deliver superior standards of work and customer service. We pride ourselves
on many of our staff remaining with us throughout their careers, something which
is increasingly uncommon in the commercial world. Many of our most senior staff
started out at entry level within our profit centres and their continuity of
employment is testament to the Group’s focus on employee development throughout
their careers. We are committed to ensuring equal opportunities for all our
staff.
Health and safety
In all our markets we have extensive programmes
to develop and maintain the highest standards of health and safety for both our
employees and our customers. We make a considerable annual investment in
ensuring that every piece of equipment meets or exceeds the latest safety
standards. We also employ an internal health and safety audit team to ensure
that the correct health and safety precautions are in place throughout every
aspect of our business. Education is key to improving safety standards across
the industries that we serve. We are at the forefront of the drive to promote
higher standards and to educate our customers about new and improved methods of
ensuring all employees operate in a safe environment.
Safeguarding the
environment
A-Plant is committed to minimising any risk or
negative impact our business may have on the environment. During the course
of our business, we impact the environment principally through the disposal of
waste oils, lubricants and through fuel emissions, as well as through the
disposal of effluent. Across our territories, our operating philosophy involves
a commitment to:
- reduce the quantity of waste
we produce and to dispose of it correctly.
- supply and run correctly
maintained equipment to reduce both fuel and noise pollution.
- purchase and supply, where
possible, equipment which is energy and noise efficient.
- encourage the use of recycled
materials where these are financially viable including encouraging suppliers to
improve the environmental standards of their products.
- maximise transport efficiency
for both environmental and commercial benefit.
- ensure that our fuel storage
facilities, both fixed and mobile, conform to relevant guidance to reduce the
risk of contamination.
- establish optimal procedures
to deal with oil or fuel spillage including notifying the relevant enforcing
authority.
- identify and correctly handle
potentially hazardous waste material in accordance with the regulations in each
of our territories.
Customers and suppliers
We set out to apply a ‘Customer
First’ culture and aim to build partnerships to enable our customers to do more,
more effectively, over the long term. We try to put our customers’ needs first
in everything, from concept and planning through to delivery and post-contract,
and offer a range of benefits such as our pioneering extranet facility giving
customers on-line real-time account tracking. We have a national account
management function in both the US and UK and offer preferred or sole supplier
agreements, whereby customers can reduce their equipment supplier bases with
bespoke arrangements that can provide significant savings in time and money as
well as enhancing safety. In addition, we invest heavily in new equipment,
selecting only brand leaders as suppliers, building long-term relationships with
them to ensure we offer the very latest and highest quality equipment.
Contributing to the
community
We recognise the importance of giving back to
the communities where we do business. We have a number of community programmes
across both the US and the UK as well as individual initiatives at a number of
our profit centres.
