No one really knows the origins of Boxing Day; the true story of why we call December 26th Boxing Day is actually hotly contested, although it is apparent that most people have an opinion and stick to it. Although more likely to be originating from the 17th Century tradition to give a ‘Christmas box’ to tradesman on the 26th, amongst the most popular theories of why ‘Boxing Day’ is so named involves dealing with the multitude of boxes the are left over from the famous day of gift giving and unwrapping.

So prevalent are these boxes that today’s use of the term ‘Boxing Day’ may as well refer to the day ‘we deal with the rubbish’. After filling the recycling bin and possibly even a tip run, there is no doubt that over those few days, no matter how many times you try to deal with the ‘box situation’, it will just keep coming back as new toys and electronics get unboxed and played with.

As part of our responsibility to not only our staff and community, but also our planet, this year, MVIS will be opening its doors to employees over this time to allow them to use our recycling facilities so staff can dispose of cardboard boxes responsibly. In doing this, MVIS hopes to ensure that boxes and wrapping paper are recycled rather than ending up in landfill after squeezing those last few bits into the general waste bin because they won’t fit anywhere else.

MVIS takes this responsibility seriously, with some very big news due to hit our blog early next year, we will be completely reviewing our CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Policy to continuously improve ourselves and work on what we can give back to the wider community and to our planet.

Stay tuned for more information about what our new CSR Policy will contain.

We hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and are looking forward to New Year as much as we are!

Bringing our Christmas community initiatives to a close this year, members of MVIS and Bartco UK are very proud to have been working on a grocery collection this month to donate to a local food bank. At this time of year, it is very important to us as an organisation and as individuals to give back to our local community. So, in addition to the other community projects we have been working on this festive period, we have also had this project ticking in the background as our donations table continued to get fuller over the past 2 weeks.

It was suggested that amongst the donations we focus on items of ‘need’, that is, items that don’t often get donated that the organisers need in order to make up full food packs, signalling MVIS and Bartco UK to donate 4 full boxes of items for donation.

Urgently needed items included long life milk, squash / juice, deodorants, shampoo, coffee and tinned meat, which were heavily featured items in our donation, along with a few extra special Christmas treats to bring a bit of excitement to those in need for their Christmas food pack.Organisers of our local food bank, The Trussell Trust are dedicated to reducing poverty and dependency on food banks, claiming “We always welcome donations and promise to use them to provide help to people in crisis.” The donations given for this cause are used exclusively for people in the UK and are absolutely vital in ensuring that The Trussell Trust can give everyone referred to them a balanced and nutritious three-day supply of food.

When we reached the deadline for our donation to be dropped off, we had an entire table’s worth of items to take with us to a nearby drop off point. A list of drop off points in the Chesterfield area can be found on the Chesterfield Food Bank website. 

Marching our donations over,  our team were proud to represent MVIS in the conclusion of our final charity project of the year, delivering our donations to a local supermarket drop off point.

For more information about your local food back, please visit The Trussell Trust website or alternatively, you can find more details on donating here. 

It’s not like MVIS to shy away from a chance to help the community, so when a local crisis occurs, it seems only natural that we would get in touch to see if we can help. One such crisis took place in early November that saw large areas within Derbyshire and South Yorkshire drastically flooded, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to businesses all over the area.

Amongst the worst hit were some businesses close to MVIS and Bartco UK, such as The Tipsy Toad in Matlock and some, such as Toy Stories in Matlock simply stole our hearts with a tale of such unfortunate luck we felt it was only right to do what we could to help.

Earlier in the week, we published a post that covered our recent initiative to help Freya King and her store, Toy Stories.

However, we didn’t stop there. Indeed, in a response to the floods, MVIS have jumped to the aid of a number of businesses that need to inform local customers, road users and passers-by when they will be reopening. Putting our products to good use, MVIS donated signs to these businesses to offer an effective way of broadcasting their reopening to ensure that the local community are kept fully up to date so the businesses can resume trade as soon as possible.

The Hurt Arms in Belper put a donated VMS-A to fantastic use on the corner of their car park, in full view of the road so road users can see what date they are reopening.

Likewise, just outside their establishment, The Tipsy Toad deployed one of our HD Compact units featuring a countdown that is updated daily to the exciting day that they reopen.

Being positioned on such a main road, every road user who passes this sign are kept informed of when The Tipsy Toad will reopen, bringing hype and excitement to the community who eagerly await the reopening of one of their best loved bars.

In times of crisis, MVIS are happy to muck in with the community, doing what we can to help these businesses get back on their feet. The benefits of our products make these ideal signs to use in such a crisis, offering a bright, low power consuming LED display that is reliable under all conditions.

Of course, the giving this season doesn’t end with this – MVIS and Bartco UK still have a few things on the go this Christmas, so make sure you check back on our website to keep up to date with all the latest news.

At the time of year that is most known for generosity and giving, MVIS and Bartco UK are not ones to miss such an opportunity, and in true keeping with our general ethos, we aren’t ones to do half a job either. This is why, during the Christmas build up in 2019, team members from MVIS and Bartco UK embarked on a ‘giving mission’ that would seek to maximise the impact a simple community donation could make.

The idea, put forward by the company’s ‘moral compass’, Jon Larkins, was to ensure that our impact was felt across the community with a single donation, bringing happiness to more people than if we had just taken part in a traditional donation.

But why is this important?

Late in 2019, Matlock and surrounding areas in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire were hit by drastic flooding, taking some businesses local to MVIS and Bartco UK out of action – a tragedy at the best of times, but being so close to Christmas made this all the more worse.

This local crisis was felt by some more than others, but few felt the devastation more than Freya King, a young entrepreneur whose business is based in Matlock. Freya had prepared for months to open a children’s book shop, Toy Stories, only for opening day to coincide with the very same day that the River Derwent decided to burst its banks. Flooding the area her shop was located in and doing thousands of pounds worth of damage, a lot of stock and her brand-new shop was covered in 4 inches of water.

Freya had no idea when she would reopen, casting the immediate future of her shop in worrying jeopardy. However, in a move of incredible hard work and dedication, she managed to open only a few days later bringing the community of Matlock the children’s book shop it needed just in time for Christmas.

Initially, our plan idea was to simply respond to a traditional Christmas Present Appeal, which take place across countless charities around the world in order to deliver presents to children at Christmas who may otherwise not get any. However, in this move of altruistic genius, Jon’s idea was to not only deliver on the Present Appeal, but to do so with items purchased from Freya’s shop due to her extremely unfortunate luck, giving her business a helping hand whilst also helping the chosen Present Appeal.

Members of the team rushed to take on the duty of ‘Santa’, which fell as 2 separate tasks – purchasing the items from Matlock town centre and then delivering them. Responsible for the purchasing task and keeping true to their job titles, Bec, Bartco UK’s Purchasing & Stock Supervisor and Pip, Purchasing Assistant, were granted the task of the shopping spree.

Upon arriving at Toy Stories, the reasons for us being there were explained to Freya. Despite the hardship she has seen recently, she offered us a discount on the basis that the items were for charity in an incredible show of generosity and warmth, allowing us to get a few extra books and toys to max out our budget and help make a few extra children’s Christmas special.

But this was only half the task at hand. With Freya’s donation by way of discount, this made the job of delivering these gifts even more important as it was no longer just our donation – we needed the right person to do the job of delivering and who else would have been better than our very own Santa Claus himself – Mr Jon Larkins.

After taking a company vote, it was decided that the Salvation Army Present Appeal was best for us to donate to, with strong community links all over the area, we knew that any gifts donated would certainly go to a good cause. Once decided, Jon took off in his sleigh to deliver the gifts to an officer of the local Salvation Army who warmly accepted us into her home to make the drop off.

But the giving doesn’t stop there from MVIS and Bartco UK. All throughout December we have a variety of community and charity initiatives that are all aimed at giving back during this time of festive cheer. So keep checking back on our website for more details on what we’ve been up to.

Anyone wishing to donate to the Salvation Army can find more information on their website.

Continuing the festivities, on the 13th December, MVIS and Bartco UK took part in Christmas Jumper Day!

Raising money for the homeless, members of the team donated between £1 and £3 for the cause, helping to bring a  little bit of happiness to vulnerable people this Christmas whilst bringing festive cheer to the office.

Everyone took part in this fun excuse to wear those warm, comfortable jumpers that only come out this time of year, even Levi the French Bulldog! But between me and you, some of the team got into the spirit early and have been practising Christmas Jumper Day for a number of days in the lead up to today, ensuring that they looked their best and made a real effort to impress.

The ‘winner’ of Christmas Jumper Day here was almost certainly one of our new starters, Liam, who donned an elf costume and a Santa hat in a hilarious show of this fun side of himself. Liam wins even more points for his outfit considering he is one of Bartco UK’s Workshop Technicians, really bringing the costume to life.

Whilst Christmas Jumper Day is a bit of light-hearted fun for us here at MVIS and Bartco UK, it must be remembered that we are doing this for a very real and serious reason. Homelessness is no joke, especially during a time that is supposed to be about family and feature a little bit of ‘overindulgence’ – a luxury the homeless don’t tend to have. So, at a time of the year that is universally known as the ‘time of giving’, it is appropriate for us to give back to the community and do what we can for this worthy cause.

This isn’t the only community initiative that we have on the go this Christmas however. As a socially responsible organisation, we have numerous projects taking place this year that will help several sections of society. Stay tuned for more information on these, as they come to fruition throughout the remainder of December.

Edit: For Christmas Jumper Day 2019, the MVIS and Bartco UK team raised £37.50. A big thanks to everyone who took part – every penny donated to Centrepoint Homeless Charity counts! 

With all the markets and events taking place up and down the country at Christmas, we are entering a very busy time for MVIS. However, we are never too busy to make sure we are doing our bit. For a number of years, MVIS have donated VMS-As in aid of Buxton’s 5K Jingle Bell Jog, and this year was no exception. In addition to this, 2 of our MVIS office team, Mizzy and Tom all took time out of their weekend to participate in the event, taking us into the Christmas period as we intend to continue; with generosity, hard work and of course lots of laughs. 

The arduous task of completing this 5k run on such a cold Sunday morning was made all the more impressive knowing that our team raised money individually for Blythe House Hospice Care,  a charity that offers free, individualised, holistic care and support for anyone in the High Peak living with cancer or other serious, life-limiting illness. The run itself involved participants running, walking, dancing, prancing, jogging or jingling their way around Buxton’s Pavilion Gardens to raise the funds for Blythe House Hospice Care. 

A fantastic day was had by everyone, with all those taking part going at their own pace. The important thing in these events is not where you finish, but taking part. It’s an old cliche but one that rarely has as much meaning as in this case. The very act of signing up for a physical challenge like this is easier for some than for others, but actually taking part is another accolade in itself, one that our team and everyone involved should be very proud of themselves for. 

Blythe House Hospice Care are already promoting next year’s event. If you want to find out how you can do your bit, or for any more information about the 2020 Buxton Jingle Jog, visit their website and be sure to make the most out of the early bird sign up discount! 

Road Safety Week takes place this year from 18th – 24th November and is organised by road safety charity, Brake. The annual occasion is the biggest road safety awareness event in the UK, with thousands of companies, organisations, educational institutions and wider communities taking part in road safety demonstrations, exciting events and information screenings, all with the focus of raising road safety awareness.

During Road Safety Week, the police often take the opportunity to conduct roadside checks of vehicles in order to highlight the importance of keeping your vehicle properly maintained, offering advice to drivers and running speed checks on traffic, with the message that speeding is a major cause of accidents and contributes to more deaths on the road than is acceptable.

Few causes mean as much to MVIS as road safety, being a central foundation for our business. Many of our ITS products are designed specifically with road safety in mind, covering road works, traffic management, speed enforcement and other general road safety concerns. What’s more is that not only does our business surround the importance of road safety, but so do our team’s lives, who are often required to go out into the field on highways up and down the country to conduct maintenance on our units.

With this in mind, it is of extreme importance to us that our own company vehicles are maintained properly, and this week marks a perfect prompt to run even more thorough checks on our vehicles than usual. Vehicle safety is an aspect we do not take lightly anyway, even on a normal day, with the company requiring our delivery drivers to perform daily and driver change fleet checks on all vehicles with no exception. However, during Road Safety Week, the MVIS team take this opportunity to do tremendously thorough checks that go above and beyond the already strict requirements.

Ensuring that all vehicle, road safety and first aid equipment is present and in working order, MVIS vehicles are certain to have had checks on their brakes, lights, tires, water, oil and other fluids, all as part of a list of 63 checks that employees must check daily before they can leave our premises.

You can do your part for Road Safety Week yourself in many ways, such as fundraising for or donating to the road safety charity Brake, or by simply doing stringent checks on your vehicles, business or personal.

For more information about Road Safety Week, check out their website.