Rail Safety Solutions (RSS) has been awarded the SME of the Year award at the 2018 Rail Partnership Awards.
The award ceremony is part of a partnership between Network Rail and Rail Media to recognise the outstanding work organisations are doing to deliver a better railway.
Entries were judged through a two-stage process where in the first instance the company was shortlisted by a team of specialists from Network Rail. A final judging panel, including senior representatives from the rail industry, then selected the winning entries, naming RSS as the winner.
As part of the award submission process, the company provided evidence that demonstrated how it is driving excellence and innovation in several areas, such as: safety, sustainability and community engagement, as well as detailing successful partnerships.
For the last six years the company has focused on being at the forefront of technological innovations that deliver increased levels of safety and productivity.
These core principles have been the cornerstone of the business and resulted in a series of initiatives that include the semi-automatic track warning system, rostering and fatigue monitoring and safe driver control methods. This has also led to the company becoming a Midland Metro Alliance partner where it has been an integral part of both the design and development of the tram infrastructure.
The company is well-known within the industry for pioneering new methods of safety and enhancing productivity and efficiency through technology. This continued commitment to innovation resulted in RSS being one of the first rail companies in the UK to develop a mobile application that allows both drivers and workers to submit close calls and raise any safety concerns, which are actively managed by the company’s compliance team. The application allows workers to submit vehicle inspection reports directly to the fleet department ensuring vehicles are kept in a roadworthy and safe state. Furthermore, the application allows for the submission of site inspections and end of shift reports, which provides extensive insight and means that the company can actively engage with its workforce to ensure projects are completed on time.
Richard Toy, CEO of RSS, said: “The Rail Partnership Awards are a great way to drive innovation and recognises the company’s important contributions to improving safety, community engagement and sustainability. The ground-breaking initiatives that RSS has produced will help to improve productivity whilst reducing the skills shortage and age-gap, improve diversity and ensure that we deliver a safer working environment.”
Read more: The Rail Partnership Awards 2018
