Kelly Group is delighted to introduce John Taylor (Kelly Fleet Workshop Manager) and Terry Moore (Kelly Fleet Parking Team Manager). John and Terry gave us a unique insight into their responsibilities and how their roles contribute to the operation of 2700+ vehicles nationwide ensuring driver safety, efficiency, and sustainability across Kelly Group’s vast fleet.
John Taylor – Workshop Manager
I joined Kelly Fleet 4 years ago as a Workshop Manager. I’ve always been involved in the fleet, trained as an HGV mechanic, and worked my way up. Within our workshops, on-site and mobile mechanics complete all maintenance and repair tasks across our fleet. Our department also oversees the installation of all vinyl logos, bespoke lighting, beacons, and trackers across the fleet.
The business currently has 12 bespoke design and build PEU vehicles within our nationwide fleet., the most recent addition to our PEU fleet was a bespoke design and build vehicle. I was part of the project team alongside Larry, our Kelly Fleet Managing Director to custom build our PEU vehicles, from the design stage to the actual build stage.
We started the process by selecting the chassis cab, followed by custom building the body, based on the advice of custom body builders. The next stage was the creation of detailed CAD drawings to ensure all elements fit safely, as we needed to ensure the length and width of the vehicle was compatible with the various poles sizes we utilise for jobs. The last element was choosing the large crane and auger which is the muscle of the operation!
Our bespoke 18-tonne PEU vehicles feature special toolboxes, heated cupboards for uniforms, a pole jack that is attached, traffic management storage that has charging points for batteries and a special storage unit for signs and barriers. What I enjoy the most about my job is achieving operational requirements, while providing top service for our fleet.
Safety is at the forefront of everything we do here at Kelly Fleet. All our vans are speed limited to 70mph and we make sure all vehicles meet the compliance requirements. Every time a vehicle is issued to one of our drives, it goes through a full service, ensuring it is in top shape and safe to drive.
Terry Moore - Parking Team Manager
I joined the business as a supervisor for installations on behalf of Cable London 22.5 years ago and worked my way up to the senior supervisor role, then manager before taking on my current job role as the Parking Team Manager.
As one of the managers for Cable London, one of the main issues I faced, was the ever increasing number of vehicles on the road. This had a knock on effect due to the very limited parking spaces available for our engineers and which only increased the risk of company vehicles receiving a parking ticket or being towed while competing a job.
I had an idea to try to appeal some of our parking tickets and learned that in cases where vehicles were set up correctly and coned off, the appeal was successful. Soon after this, we had a meeting with all managers, directors and our chairman and we founded Kelly Group’s Parking Department, and I took the role of Parking Team Manager full-time 11 years ago. We created procedures and guidelines for our drives to follow and at the time, I was the person delivering the parking module for new starters’ driving seminars – this was before we had a Driving Assessor team.
I am lucky to now work with a small team who operates a parking line for our drivers where they need to report any parking ticket, they receive. We also offer support for drivers that are unsure about procedures, they can give our team a call and we’ll be more than happy to assist them to avoid receiving a ticket. If engineers followed company procedures, and the appeal gets declined by the local council, we will cover the cost of their parking ticket, however, if procedures are not followed our drivers are liable for their own parking tickets.
Procedures are provided within your parking procedure board that all drivers receive during their driving seminar, and as I mentioned earlier you can always call our team if you’re unsure of the correct setup. What I enjoy the most about my job is making sure that our drivers are not charged for their tickets and successful appeals – it is a very rewarding feeling. We’re keeping our engineers safe by encouraging best practices such as cones around their vehicles which creates a safe working zone for them. We also work closely with our Driving Assessors to create case studies based on real life situations which they then include within their driving seminars for new starters.
