During the year, Del Thorne and Mick Harrison carried out five demonstrations in the Staffordshire area involving a total of 739 children, the average ages being four to 11 years.
With the help of a hand puppet, Del and Mick were able to visually demonstrate the dangers and outcome of what could happen if a child ran out into the path of a vehicle.
This exercise is proving to be a great success with the children and encourages them to be aware at all times.
Tradeteam has announced it has distributed an impressive £30,000 to charities across the UK.
Employees across its 28 distribution centres walked, ran, climbed, decorated, mucked out and dressed up to raise £15,000 for local and national causes.
The UK has been placed in the bottom half of a 20-nation survey of adult reading and literacy standards but researchers found it topped the list when it came to the amount of time people spend watching television! Statistics show that one in 5 adults would struggle to find the services of a plumber in the Yellow Pages.
More worrying maybe is the fact that amongst the younger members of society – 20% of 11 year olds failed to reach their equivalent standard in reading. In an increasingly competitive world, this trend is leading to problems for employers and employees alike. However, help is at hand. Children given intensive one to one tuition make dramatic progress and can make up a two year shortfall in just a matter of months.
That’s where tradeteam employees come in. Just by setting aside 1 hour of their time each week tradeteam’s volunteers can challenge these statistics and help disadvantaged children to improve their literacy and their confidence as well as improve their chances of getting on in later life.
Acquiring literacy is an empowering process, enabling millions to enjoy access to knowledge and information which broadens horizons, increases opportunities and creates alternatives for building a better life.
- Kofi Annan
That’s why TACs (Trucks and Child Safety) has been set up by The Exel Foundation and DHL employees. It is a groundbreaking national safety training programme delivered free of charge to children between the ages of 7 and 11. It aims to educate this group about the dangers of large vehicles and to teach them to be safer on the road.
To deliver this message out into the local communities tradeteam employees are encouraged to train as TACs demonstrators to carry out the valuable role of educating children in their area.
The volunteers from the Hams Hall Depot in the Midlands all took part in and completed the BUPA Great North Run on 5th October, raising £2,000 for the Anthony Nolan Trust.Well done!
Through the DHL Foundation, Ray Massey from the NDC Burton took on the task of becoming a mentor on a week's residential course for the Outward Bound Trust through the DHL Foundation.
One of the first tasks as a mentor was to raise funding for the event. By completing a sponsored bike ride from Knowsley to Uttoxeter, a total of 76 miles, six hours and 22 minutes of peddling, Ray raised a total of £1,200.
As part of the preparation, Ray and tradeteam's other representative David Bexandale from Tinsley, met with other mentors from DHL and visited the school in Nottingham to meet some of the young people who would be attending the Outbound events taking place at Aberdovey in Wales. In addition to Nottingham, other schools from Northampton and Birmingham participated.
The week was full of challenging activities, including a two-day hike up a mountain and battling through the driving rain to set up camp, and after a night under canvas they spent time making rafts, rock climbing, and many, many more activities.
Reflecting on the week, course members couldn't believe how much they had achieved both individually and collectively. One member commented: “I wouldn't have made it up the mountain in the torrential rain without Ray encouraging me to keep going.”
Although Ray found this week a challenge, he would encourage anyone from tradeteam who enjoys the outdoors and the company of young people to apply to become a mentor on the DHL Foundation Outward Bound Trust Scheme.
The much-awaited Gloucester Open Day went ahead on Sunday 5th October.
Due to the normal British weather, the event was moved inside during the morning, but despite this, the day was a great success with approximately 250 people attending through the afternoon, as colleagues from Exeter and Swansea joined in.
Refreshments were on hand in the form of a BBQ provided by Sodexo, our caterers, and as the inevitable happened and the fire alarm went off, it was good to know that the fire brigade who were exhibiting as part of the day were on hand to help out!
All the events proved to be very popular and raised over £750 which will be matched to £1,500 by the DHL Foundation which has been donated to the site's nominated charity Winston's Wish, which caters for grieving families.
Congratulations to all who worked so hard.
Tradeteam is thrilled to announce that it was named 'Haulier of the Year' at the Motor Transport Awards on 1st July. The company also won the 'Customer Care' category.
Tradeteam has announced a long term 8 year contract with Wales’s biggest brewer SA Brain and Co Ltd.
