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COMPANY FOCUS
RAILSTAFF MARCH-APRIL 2022
TOTAL RAIL
SOLUTIONS FIVE TO FOCUS I
t’s fair to say that the last few years have been challenging for the Rail industry, but Total Rail Solutions (TRS) is emerging with a renewed sense of purpose and priorities for its people. RailStaff spoke to CEO, Paul Bateman, to discuss the company’s vision for the future and its new initiative, Five to Focus.
Thanks for joining us Paul. Before we begin, could you give us an overview of TRS and the service it provides to the rail industry? TRS is a leading national road rail plant provider for the UK rail market. Predominately, we operate road rail vehicles (RRV), offering for hire and via Plant Operations Schemes (POS). We undertake a variety of work with both main contractors and sub-contractors, the business is multi-disciplined with an expertise in enhancement and maintenance work. Operationally, TRS delivers its services from three strategically placed hubs; South Wales, Yorkshire and Newbury in Berkshire, where we also have our head office.
What key trends and challenges are you seeing at present, and how are you addressing these? What trends do you expect to see in the next 6-12 months? The challenges the industry faces right now are caused by the aftermath of the transition to CP6 and the impact on the market as a result of COVID. The outcome of which is the understandable, reorganisation, and prioritisation of the type of projects undertaken by Network Rail. Renewal programmes were and indeed remain an area of focus from both an operational requirement and investment perspective. Clearly there remains a challenge in recruiting and retaining staff, with a continuing skills gap for the key roles of HGV drivers and plant operators, an issue that persists across many other sectors other than rail. Rising fuel, labour and supply costs represent a significant challenge for the industry. I am pleased to say we recognised our dedicated and loyal workforce and have been able to attract new talent to the business during this time. In addition we took the decision in the summer of 2021 to stop filling our machines with diesel and switch to Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO), a decision that has medium to long term savings and is much kinder to the environment. As the market recovers and confidence grows, we remain competitive. We have a good plan, a great team, and continue to invest heavily in our fleet.
With that in mind could you tell us about TRS’s Five to Focus initiative? What is the purpose of the programme and what prompted its development? RAILSTAFF.CO.UK | @RAIL_STAFF | FACEBOOK.COM/RAILSTAFF
Setting a vision for the business is a fundamental objective of any leadership team. I wanted to find a mechanism to share with the TRS team what our vision is, what we stand for, our purpose, our mission and, critically, where the business needs to focus to grow and prosper. Settling on five key areas, Five to Focus was conceived. The five areas are: Health, Safety & Environment - safety first, everyone goes home safely every night; Team - we’re accountable for our actions and belong to a team of which we’re proud; Finance - commercially minded, we always act with fairness and integrity; Engagement collaborating to succeed, we are empowered to act and respectful to all; and Innovation - passionate to be the best, customers recognise and respond to what we do.
