Community outreach projects with local schools showcases sustainability and safety

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MVIS work in their local community stretches far and wide. Sponsoring sports teams, combat athletes and providing work experience opportunities for local young people are just a part of what they do to give back. Additionally, the company often reach out into their local schools and work with the children on a wide variety of projects.

Recently, MVIS teamed up with Highfields High School, and specifically, their Year 8 and 9 children to set up two challenging, intriguing tasks.

Firstly, Year 8 children were tasked with a safety initiative. The children were briefed on site safety and its importance then were set the challenge of developing a new safety idea that could be adopted on sites nationwide.

The children identified ‘Hat before that’, a safety initiative aimed at driving all on construction and highways sites to think about wearing a hard hat before carrying out any task.

Anne Ashman, General Manager of MVIS told us:

“It was very clever of the Year 8’s to think of this. Whilst we all know about the importance of PPE when on site, the children highlighted that all visitors generally will have to report to a reception or site office and even this journey can encounter possible risk on some sites.

“So, their solution was to have safety focused around hard hat wearing when arriving to the site to eradicate some risks in that first entry. Ideas that were discussed were an intercom + escort system where the site office brings out hard hats to arriving people to make sure they enter wearing one and then escorting them to vehicles as they leave to cover the reverse journey upon leaving.”

Highfields’ Year 9 children were informed of Bartco UK’s decision to foray into VMS hire across International markets and were tasked with discovering ways in which Bartco can stand out from the crowd in a new market.

The Year 9 school children developed an idea around sustainability and in addition to MVIS signs carrying essential highways and journey time information, they could also be utilised sustainably using solar power to preach sustainability across France.

The children focused on programming MVIS VMS signs with messages surrounding anti-pollution and climate change in order to become more than ‘just road signs’ for the French market.

Upon Year 9’s ideas, Anne continued:

“This really impressed us, as these are key issues within our sector and indeed, globally. Carbon footprint, climate change and environmental concerns are at the forefront of the evolution of so many company strategies going forward as the pressure builds to go greener. We’re in a position that we can use very environmentally friendly solutions to spread that word, literally put it in the faces of people and make it a part of everyday life.

“We thought this was a very forward-thinking approach from the children and reflected fantastically on Highfields school that their students are so vigilant of these worldwide issues.”

Leading the way in Health and Safety Management

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Here at MVIS, we pride ourselves on our reputation for quality products and customer service. Recently, alongside sister company Bartco UK, we became one of the first companies in the Highways sector to achieve the ISO 45001:2019 accreditation for Health and Safety Management.

 

Dedicated to offering the best service to our customers, here at MVIS, we are constantly looking for ways to make further improvements to quality and efficiency across all aspects of the business. We take a holistic approach to health and safety, combining ISO 45001 with our extensive internal safety procedures and continuous training opportunities.

This new accreditation is incredibly important us, with its focus on employee safety and working environments. Due to the nature of the work undertaken by many of our engineers across highways, vehicle management, crowd safety and construction, safety is paramount in transporting and erecting our units.

The accreditation is audited by NQA, and involved a series of comprehensive site visits and a thorough review of documented procedures, to ensure that all procedures are outlined and followed.

As part of MVIS’ health and safety management policy;

• Daily checks are completed on all units and vehicles before they leave the depot.

• The team rings the site traffic safety control officer (TSCO) in advance of arrival and checks that it is safe to do so.

• Full personal protective equipment (PPE) and traffic management is used, as appropriate for the road speed.

• The team observes paperwork and risk assessments completed by the delivery team prior to starting any deployment.

• Deployment on site is done in a safe manner and all site rules are adhered to.

General Manager, Anne Ashman said: “Earning this accreditation means we now have a recognised fully integrated management system, as well as a stamp of approval that we work in a quality manner, with health & safety as a priority and prevalence as well as working in an environmental way.

“The company culture and values revolve around quality and service, and the 45001 accreditation is another undeniable display that we drive our values through our operations every day.”

ISO 45001:2018 joins our portfolio of industry awards and accreditations including; 14001:2015 Environmental Management and 9001: 2015 Quality Management. By completing the three ISO accreditations we have created full Integrated Management Systems, so you can be confident in the knowledge that we provide high quality products and trusted solutions that comply with the highest industry standards.

To find out more about hiring our ITS products and integrated solutions, call out expert team on 01629 580 570 or email us sales@m-vis.co.uk. To keep up to date with the latest news from MVIS, follow us on Twitter @MVISLtd.

Women in Management- A Showcase of Diversity

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As the years go by, the International Women’s Day movement gathers momentum, and more and more awareness is raised of females campaigning for equality and innovating for change.

Diversity is a word most, if not all companies will tell you is something they adopt and promote – perhaps without the data or evidence to back it up.

Stereotypically, it’s fair to say that the highways and construction sectors have been portrayed as ‘a man’s industry’, however, the presence and success of influential females within these sectors continues to grow.

This is celebrated and exemplified by organisations such as ‘Women into Construction’ and the Women in Construction Summit – which will take place on May 16th this year.

One woman who has been in the industry for a number of successful years and climbed through the ranks to now head a company strategy and vision is Anne Ashman of MVIS and Bartco UK.

Anne began working at MVIS & Bartco in 2011, prior to the company’s involvement in the London 2012 Olympics, initially coming into the business as Office Manager.

We spoke to Anne about the presence of females in the sector, how times are definitely changing, and if there are still any barriers to females in the highways sector.

We asked Anne, ‘how did you first get into the highways industry – given its reputation as a ‘male industry’?’

“Purely by chance, there was a sales job advertised and I wanted an exciting new role.

“I applied after being a purchasing manager for years, the company only had two employees and I felt my organisational skills would be of huge benefit to the company- especially when I knew it was aiming to win the 2012 Olympic project.

“During the interview, I talked the then Director into a full-time role as the office manager rather than a part-time role in sales – showing my determination.  After we won that project, I was a huge part of getting the goods into the country, working with customs and excise and shipping agents, in addition to working with the guys on the ground to help oversee the operational side.”

And is there a big change in the number of women in highways and construction in the 8 years you’ve been involved?

“There’s a noticeable change, but it’s fair to say women in construction are still a minority.

“The number is certainly growing and if you walk around some of the major exhibitions there are certainly more females on stands as the face of the company with product and service knowledge. At Traffex 2019 I noticed there were far more females present than ever before-  and not just in the capacity of marketing as in previous years.

“Another noticeable change is seeing more and more women finding roles in the sector that perhaps in the past may have been blocked off.

“We’re starting to see ‘the first female…’ being mentioned in a variety of ways whether it be Traffic Management Operatives or Road Markers and that’s just fantastic to see.”

As a female, have you encountered any resistance or attempted barriers to ascending a company in the sector?

“Oh yes, even being told that I was a ‘woman playing in a man’s world’ which if I’m honest just makes me dig my heels in and be more determined.

“Gender should be absolutely irrelevant when it comes to the workplace, it should be about the best person for a role and should be indeed purely about getting the job done.”

And do you still encounter anything like this in 2019?

“Rarely, but unfortunately, yes. It’s fewer and further between nowadays, but it exists. In fact, the ‘woman in a man’s world comment wasn’t actually very long ago at all!

“Anyone who knows me knows I have a very strong personality and am extremely passionate about the company and my role within it.

“But the facts are, it should be about the qualifications, skills and experience of a person. I shortly will have completed a business management degree – I am just one exam away from the golden goal, after working my butt off for the last six years.  This adds to a string of other qualifications in HR, accounts, health & safety etc. that I have, so I never stop trying to learn and better myself – and the company with it”.

With that in mind, what would you say is the key for any female embarking on a career in this sector, or any sector that may be portrayed as male dominant?

“Firstly, stay true to yourself. You know you have a battle on your hands before you come into a stereotypically male orientated sector.

“Secondly, be respected for your mind and what you bring to the table and respect the people already in the sector who have knowledge to share – whether they are male or female. Also, be prepared to get stuck in – I am at my happiest when I am out on the ground in high-vis with the lads from my team, be it battery changing or delivering if the need arises.

“Finally, remember what you have to offer and that everyone in any role should only have to prove they’re capable of doing the job.”

You can meet the rest of the MVIS team here, and can keep up to date on all our news by following us on Twitter @MVISltd

National Recognition for MVIS Apprenticeship Scheme

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Here at MVIS, we’ve been running our apprenticeship scheme for just over five years and we’re pleased to announce that our hard work has been recognised by Learning Unlimited as we were recently awarded a place on the shortlist for their Investment in Apprentices award.

The investment award celebrates employers who are “fully invested in apprenticeships and have integrated them into their workforce succession plans, above and beyond expectations,” and the winner will be announced at a ceremony in Sheffield at the end of November.

General Manager, Anne Ashman, said: “The highways sector faces a shortage of recruits, and apprenticeship programmes like ours encourage young people to explore the potentially highly fulfilling career options available within our industry.

“Seven of our 17-strong team joined as apprentices and we’re in the process of recruiting an eighth. Our apprentices have all worked hard and their retention rate has been excellent.  Our assistant operations manager was recently promoted to the role having joined us as an apprentice.

“The shortlisting provides us with further encouragement to continue this extremely fruitful programme. We are confident that it will continue to generate business benefits for us and ultimately to support the industry as a whole, as new talent is welcomed into the sector.”

The winners of the Learning Unlimited National Apprenticeship Awards will be announced on 22nd November at the awards ceremony. We’re sure you’ll join us in wishing everyone at MVIS the best of luck for the evening. Fingers crossed – and watch this space!

Celebrating the Success of Apprenticeships: From Apprentice to Manager

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It’s our very own Dom Bridges’ 5th anniversary at MVIS this week. He started his career as an apprentice in 2013 and has quickly worked his way to a managerial position. Here we celebrate the positive impact that apprenticeships have for businesses.

Dom Bridge, our Assistant Operations Manager, started with us five years ago as an Admin Apprentice, before moving on to Operations and Customer Service Supervisor. Throughout his roles, he’s proven himself as a team player, bringing new ideas to the company and has grown to be an integral part of the MVIS team.

Since his first day, Dom got ‘stuck in’ right away. Incredibly organised and proactive, he uses his logistics skills to help plan for new projects and ensure we have the resources ready to deploy. Dom always says that no job it too big or too small.

Here at MVIS, we’ve found that hiring apprentices helps to engage staff and leads to a high level of staff retention, with all of our previous apprentices gaining permanent roles and staying with us as they ‘move through the ranks’. Current employees have the opportunity to develop their management skills through training and mentoring our apprentices, while the apprentices themselves gain a wealth of new skills and develop their confidence. Of our current 17 employees, seven are (or have been) apprentices.

Dedicated to helping students access the best opportunities, our General Manager, Anne Ashman, works closely with local schools and Sixth Forms, advising staff and students about work placements and apprenticeships. Using her industry networks, she is currently in the process of working with the head of a local Sixth Form to develop degree level apprenticeships in engineering, in partnership with high profile companies, as an alternative to traditional Higher Education.

Longstanding champions of the importance of apprentices, MVIS have since taken on and retained six more apprentices:

Rebecca (since March 2015)
George (since March 2015)
Tillie (since September 2016)
Kiran (since October 2016)
Tom (since February 2017)
Cain (since August 2017)

Anne says, “I believe it’s incredibly important for young people to be given enough information to choose the right career or education pathway, and for businesses like ours to support them in reaching their goals. For any companies out there thinking of hiring an apprentice, my advice is to go for it. Young people have so much to give, their enthusiasm and willingness to bring new ideas to the business is a real benefit.”

MVIS Proudly Supports Local Charities

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Our signs, in particular our VMS-A units, are perfect for use at events offering information and safety details during events as well as advertising space to promote  them. Signage is important for any event and the ability to change the messaging in an instant is a real bonus.

MVIS is committed to supporting local businesses and charities, supplying a number of VMS-A units for free. Here are just a few of the charities and local events that we’ve supported over the last year:

  • Star Trust Charity
  • The Sparkle Walk, for Markovitz, in aid of Ashgate Hospice
  • Mazzi Curry House opening
  • Mazzi Movies in the Park
  • Chesterfield Chip Shop Opening
  • Save our Beds, in support of Whitworth Hospital
  • Victorian Market in Matlock
  • Matlock Town Football Club
  • Highfields School

It’s really important to us that we not only support charity events, but are also invested in supporting occasions that help to bring the local community together. Mazzi Curry House organise a range of community events in Matlock that help bring people together, including the Movies in the Park evenings, a great summer evening event with showings of recent films and family favourites, alongside great food. We’re proud to support these events with the provision of our signs as a way to give back to the local community.

Furthermore, we love seeing local businesses flourish. We understand that it can be hard to get the word out there when starting a new business. With the recent opening Chesterfield Chip Shop, our signs provided a space for information and advertising to help promote openings and advertise offers.

After the #ChallengeDerbyshire Golf Day, Jennifer McBain, Marketing and Events Director at M Markovitz Ltd said, ‘“Just a note to say thank you so much for the use of the electronic sign for our charity golf day on Friday. It looked great and really lifted the event as people arrived. Overall the event raised over £4,000 and was a lovely day so thank you for your support!”

If you want to find out more about how MVIS supports local businesses, or require signage for your event, get in touch with our friendly team on 01629 580570 or email sales@m-vis.co.uk

THE BUSINESS BENEFITS OF EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION

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By Anne Ashman, general manager MVIS and Bartco UK

A considerable degree of a business’ success depends on establishing strong working relationships with other companies.  Four years ago, we extended our network beyond the commercial to include our local secondary school, and it has turned out to be one of our most beneficial associations.

Our relationship with Matlock’s Highfields school began when it approached us to ask whether we would consider offering work placements to its students, which we now do annually.  As well as providing us with students who bring with them a fresh pair of eyes and enthusiasm, they have also helped us to develop our apprenticeship programme; Cain Gregory undertook a work placement then proactively approached us for a technical apprenticeship, which we were delighted to offer.

The benefits of apprenticeships cannot, in my opinion, be overstated.  Our apprentices have all worked hard and been eager to progress, and their retention rate has been excellent.  Our assistant operations manager, Dom Bridge – another former Highfields student – was recently promoted to the role, having joined us as an apprentice five years ago.   Our young apprentices have also proved highly knowledgeable regarding IT and social media, and this has been extremely helpful to us.  Furthermore, coming straight from school, they have been completely “clean slates” and so readily accept our modus operandi.

This year, we extended the scope of our association with Highfields when I became an enterprise advisor (EA) to the school.  The idea behind enterprise advisorships is that they help secondary schools to build careers strategies that give students multiple opportunities to learn about work, meeting the Gatsby Benchmark standard highlighted in the government’s new careers strategy launched in December.  One of the strategies’ goals is to encourage students to broaden their horizons beyond simply university, to include other possibilities, such as degree apprenticeships.

Within this role, I use my business experience to advise Highfields on the skills required in industry, including those within the highways sector.   We offer students valuable interview experience. I also provide the school with access to my own corporate network – filling what is often a gap in schools’ own contacts –  and the school’s new industry contacts have gone on to generate their own careers support opportunities such as work placements and apprenticeships.

Being able to introduce my own contacts to the benefits of work placements, apprenticeships and the other elements of a working relationship with a school, is a great way of nurturing my industry network.

Alongside all of this, since last year we have been running MVIS Challenges:  annual school-based projects for year eight – and this year also year nine – students, encouraging them to consider the diverse roles that Bartco UK variable message signs (VMS) can perform.  Again, it’s always interesting to view things through new eyes, and the challenges are already encouraging students to request placements with us as they get older.

Another business benefit of our relationship with the school has been in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR).  As this becomes increasingly important to companies throughout the highways sector, the provision of careers support like this is proving an effective means of supporting local communities.

The school’s life and work skills coordinator, Jane Turner, recently summarised the benefits to Highfields:  “Our association with MVIS and Bartco is not simply enabling us to honour our commitment to meeting the requirements of the government’s new careers strategy.  It is allowing us to support our pupils as they fully explore their career options and prepare for the world of work.”

And the benefits don’t stop with MVIS, Bartco UK and the school.  The highways sector faces a shortage of recruits – especially those embarking on technical careers – and work like ours to engage youngsters while still at school is already helping to encourage them to consider it as a potential career route.

The cost to MVIS and Bartco UK of our work with Highfields is minimal.  Once the individual initiatives have been established, I would estimate that I personally only spend around half a day a month on school-related business, whether on my six-weekly EA meetings, or on a small number of interim calls and emails.

I would strongly encourage other companies within the highways sector to consider establishing their own links with their local schools.  They would find that the business benefits are considerable and long-term, not to mention those for the industry as a whole. 

TRUST in training to keep leading the way

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MVIS’ ethos on day-to-day business is led by our approach to service.

Service to customers comes above all else, and we strive to provide world-class class service to each and every client on every single order- no matter how big or small.

So, how do we instil this attitude throughout the company?

Well, you embed it through training and culture: introducing MVIS’ TRUST:

T – Team Work
R – Respect
U – Understanding
S – Safe Working Practice
T – Training

To be able to be consistent with these values – which the whole MVIS team contributed to – staff need to be trained for safe working practices and also have understanding and respect for others. All supervisors have been on some sort of HR course to be able to supervise other staff.

MVIS staff training underpins MVIS’ value of TRUST and we are extremely proactive with the continued development of our staff. Most current employees are doing some sort of training right now. This continued commitment to upskilling staff means that retention is at an all-time high as employees are satisfied, challenged and stimulated in their employment.

Anne Ashman, MVIS General Manager said:

“We feel our employees develop a greater affinity to MVIS as they can see firsthand that we are doing all we can to give them every opportunity to develop in their positions. We provide training and support to every department of the business, and support the entire workforce fully on their journey here with us.”

Additionally, there is no ceiling for skills at MVIS, nor a feeling of ‘job done’ or ‘nothing left to learn’. Anne continued:

“Even as General Manager of the company, I’m encouraged to keep learning and developing my own skillset. I am currently in the midst of an OU Business and Management degree, as well as an ITOPS course. Last year I also did a CIPD HR course- so it really is a constant here to be always exploring how we can upskill our staff right through the company.

“We run internal health & safety, environmental and quality training workshops monthly, which ensures that everyone understands the company’s key policies and procedures along with keeping themselves and the environment safe. Vitally, it also gets everyone to buy in to our ISO 9001 & 14001 status.”

Apprentices

MVIS has for the last four years, dramatically increased their uptake of apprentices. By doing this, employees learn the principles of the MVIS ‘TRUST’ model from day one, becoming malleable workers in the MVIS way.

The career pathway is embedded into the company for apprentices, and impressively – Operations Supervisor Dom Bridge began his journey with MVIS as an apprentice just four years ago.

MVIS presently has five apprentices, as well as a further two former apprentices that are now permanently employed. Overall, we have an impressive apprentice retention value of almost 90%, meaning almost 9/10 apprentices that MVIS give an opportunity to, stay with us at the end of their apprenticeship.

The intention to train and keep each apprentice to the MVIS values is paying dividends, with skilful, capable employees being molded.

At present, all current admin staff apart from accounts have been apprentices or are currently finishing apprenticeships with MVIS. Of the five workshop staff, there are three apprentices at various levels.

Anne explained the main benefit to recruiting apprentices as opposed to more experienced people:

“Simply, we can train them to buy into the MVIS TRUST values and our attitude to customer service, and it reduces the likelihood of having to remove bad habits taken from previous employment.”

The MVIS Approach

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We’re firm believers that MVIS should be responsible and ethical in its approach to work, and this applies to all of our processes, products and staff.

This is evident in the work we do within and beyond our local community, and how we constantly try to better ourselves, whether this is regular training courses for the team, or working to achieve industry standard quality milestones such as the ISO certification. Take a look at the different ways in which we’re committed to CSR here:

Supporting people

We’re keen supporters of our community and its people and regularly welcome work experience students from the nearby Highfield School in Matlock to help to integrate them into a working environment. We also employ a number of apprentices who have excelled in their roles, learning quickly and applying that knowledge to their day-to-day working life.

Supporting the environment

EnvironmentOur customers are often surprised to know that our portfolio of traffic management products is extremely environmentally friendly. Our VMS units are solar powered so need no mains electricity, and as we have use of over 20 depots around the UK, they needn’t travel a huge distance to get to you – meaning fewer carbon emissions. Our products can also help to educate drivers about the dangers of air pollution and encourage them to become more aware of how they drive. Read more about that here >

Supporting charities

CharityWe’re always keen to help out wherever we can, and over the past 12 months have taken part in different charity initiatives. Early this year, we donated equipment to a charity march in support of our local hospital and alongside this, two of the MVIS team – Anne and Tom – completed 10 x 10km runs in 10 months in aid of Sands Charity, raising over £5000.

Supporting clubs

MickelThere are many sports fans within ‘Team MVIS’ and this is reflected in the support that we offer to local sports teams and persons from the local area. We recently announced that we would be continuing to sponsor our local football team, Matlock Town FC, and as well as seeing our name on the shirts, fans will also see vital match day information on the fixed VMS unit that we donated to the ground to help keep their crowds up-to-date with important safety information and upcoming match details. Our sister company Bartco UK is also a proud sponsor of local kickboxer and ICO Super Middleweight World Champion, Karl Johnston, as well as the multiple championship winning team Mickel Motorsport. Sponsoring teams and clubs like this allows us to show our support throughout the wider community and provides vital funds for them to continue competing to a high level.

If you would like to find out more about MVIS, please call us on 01629 580570.

Specialised should not mean scarce

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Here at MVIS, we’ve always been keen to support local businesses and people wherever possible, and as such, have always welcomed apprentices and traineeships as part of our growing workforce.

MVIS, and its sister company Bartco UK have a long-standing partnership with local education provider Highfields School in Matlock, and we often run work experience programmes for the Year 10s. This sees them working closely with our technical team, and will hopefully inspire them to consider a career within the ITS industry – which is facing as a shortage of recruits.

The ITS industry requires highly-skilled workers who possess good technical knowledge, and to try to ignite a spark with younger students, this year MVIS has extended an invitation for Year 8 pupils to encourage them to think about the role that ITS equipment could perform outside the transport sector.

We hope that initiatives like this will inform youngsters of the varied roles available to them within the industry, and demonstrate the type of skills that are required.

MVIS will also welcome one of last year’s Highfields’ work experience students who is about to embark on a four-year apprenticeship with the company. He will join four other apprentices working across various departments, from administration to technical.

MVIS’ apprenticeship scheme has proved to be a storming success, and both the Operations and Service Coordinator and Administration Assistant began their careers at MVIS through apprenticeships and have grown in confidence and skills during their time here.

One of the reasons this initiative has worked so well is that the MVIS team always ensure that, however busy they are, that the apprentices are given adequate time to undertake all of their apprenticeship work within office hours. Not every organisation does this, and MVIS’ training provider advises that this can compromise the output, from the perspective both of the individuals concerned and of their employers.

And it’s not only the apprentices that are developing their learning, the rest of the staff regularly undertake additional training courses and exams to ensure that they are up-to-date with all of the new regulations within the industry. It’s never too late to learn!

If you are interested in a career in the ITS industry or would like to know more about MVIS, please email us on sales@m-vis.co.uk or call us on 01629 580 570.

Taking the environmentally friendly route

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Last week the government was forced to publish its plans for tackling air pollution and the risk it poses to public health – the noxious oxides and particulates linked to higher incidence of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancer is estimated to be responsible for 40,000 premature deaths every year. *

At the heart of the debate is how best to deal with the emissions – diesel or otherwise –  from the increasing numbers of vehicles on our congested roads. Pressure is already building for an expansion of the UK’s clean air zones and even a Clean Air Act to better protect public health.

In the meantime much can be done to help reduce air pollution, for example communicating to road users the steps they can take to reduce the emissions themselves.  

Traffic managers regularly plan for situations that are likely to have high volumes of slow-moving traffic (including heavy road works and large events) and, with MVIS’ Auto Detect system, can use these valuable opportunities to educate road users about how they can use the UK’s roads in a more environmentally friendly way.

Auto Detect is an innovative integrated transport system (ITS) solution that combines a series of variable message signs and master Intellicone Traffic Management Unit with a set of traffic lights. When the lights turn red, the wirelessly activated VMS displays a message to stationary drivers.

These pre-programmed messages can include facts about the levels of air pollution caused on UK roads as well as advice on how motorists can effectively lower their own emissions, such as turning off their engines when in stationary traffic queues, keeping their vehicles well maintained and removing excess cargo.

If you are interested in hiring Auto Detect for your road work project, call 01629 580 570 or email sales@m-vis.co.uk

 

* Source: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/06/observer-view-on-curbing-air-pollution-diesel-car-scrappage-health

CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility

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Responsible Business Conduct for a Better World

As a successful business, employer and member of the wider community, we believe it is our Corporate Social Responsibility to help the people and businesses in our local community. We provide a mixture of practical and financial support across a range of areas.

Safety

The safety of our customers, employees and the general public is one of our top priorities. The very nature of our products help to bring safety to the UK’s road network, for events and emergency situations.

At the heart of our business operations, safety is a core foundation that our organisation is built upon. Principals of safety are felt at every level of our business, from our staff to our products and service. Perhaps one of the most socially responsible priorities, our emphasis on safety serves as the base point we that we judge all aspects of our business on.

Safety training plays a huge part in this, with the danger presented in many aspects of our line of work potentially being life threatening in on-site environments and in manufacturing roles.

Some of the training we either mandate or offer to our staff are:

  • Manual handling
  • Role related safety training
  • Fire Warden training
  • First Aid training
  • Near Miss training

Employees & Training

We encourage our staff to undertake as much training as possible, increasing the safety and job satisfaction of our team members. As a result, we boast of one of the industry’s best trained workforces and continue to support employees in training and qualifications with no limit to their advancement.

We also prioritise mental health, wellbeing and physical health in our approach to staff.

A few things we do to ensure this are: 

  • All employees receive literature detailing the mental health first aid protocol ‘ALGEE’
  • We offer the services of 2 mental health first aiders to lean on when their mental health is suffering
  • Offering the use of services such as Peninsula’s EAP 
  • We encourage staff to enjoy their downtime when possible, discouraging employees to take their work home with them and support staff in personal endeavours where applicable
  • Offering a wide range of free fruit each week for our employees, as well as free healthy lunch options for all employees if they want them
  • Employees are encouraged to take part in corporate fitness and sporting challenges throughout the year
  • Assisting an employee back to work after an extended illness we work with them on measures such as the reduction of hours or responsibilities if they feel they need them
  • We promote an open, inclusive and friendly company culture that rewards hard work and dedication
  • Offering a generous employee benefits package
  • We promote a culture of competitive pay in our organisation not only to reward our staff for their hard work, but also to keep them and help prevent poaching

Community Outreach & Charity

We take pride in our community outreach efforts, which have seen us offer our products, time and financial support to a range of community causes as and when they occur.

 

Some of our community activities include: 

  • We regularly reach out to businesses affected by local emergencies such as flooding with the offer of our products to support with reopening, community information or security
  • We run an apprenticeship scheme to support the careers of local youngsters
  • Regularly provide work experience for students from Matlock’s Highfields School
  • We also take part in local volunteering activities that benefits the community as a whole. For example, we work closely with our local community school in the form of annual mock interviews and critical thinking challenges for the students
  • Taking place throughout the year, our charity initiatives reach their peak during Christmas time. Each year, as an organisation, we pick a homeless charity to raise money for from our Christmas jumper day, which staff bring funds to take part in. Throughout December, we also hold a food bank collection which is donated before Christmas to a local food bank.
  • We remain opportunistic in this with charity taking the form of attendance at charity events, responses to local emergencies (both in financial support and services) and even advice.
  • Supporting Ashgate Hospice, we raise money for the charity by running our in-house baking competition, The Great MVIS Bake Off. Along with taking part in their Treecycle, Sparkle Walk and sponsoring the High Peak Trail. At Christmas staff members volunteer to host a movie night for the team at Ashgate. More recently MVIS have sponsored a sky dive, done by our own Workshop Technician, Rob Hinchley in September 2024.
  • Taking pride in our surroundings and regularly cleaning our offices. We take part in a litter pick in and around our surrounding area to ensure that the offices and roads around us are clean and maintained.
  • We also support local sporting individuals. In recent years we have sponsored many athletes including Karl Johnston, a world champion Kickboxer, and the Matlock Town Football Team supplying them with a VMS in and around the ground.
  • We have also sponsored smaller local football teams including Cromford & Wirksworth Town Football Club. We have sponsored Jacob Spencer, who plays as a striker for the team.

 

Environmental responsibility

The very nature of the majority of our products have a strong environmental focus. Our specialism being in solar power, means that we can offer environmentally friendly products to organisations looking to minimise their carbon footprint and environmental impact. 

Understanding the carbon footprint of our service, we strive to ensure that we minimise our emissions output wherever possible. Some of the steps we have taken are as follows: 

  • Our delivery model sets out to deliver multiple units at a time where necessary. Working to reduce our carbon footprint, we can offload up to 3 x VMS A units in one delivery, up to 2 x VMS C units, or up to 2 x Solar IP units.
  • At the start of 2025, we took delivery of 2 brand new delivery vehicles. These 7.5 ton solutions means that we are able to deliver more units in a single trip. Cutting down the amount of journeys made as well as reducing fuel consumption.
  • Throughout the year, we make it our objective to recycle as much as possible. This aim doesn’t just stretch as far as how we get rid of our everyday rubbish. We regularly scrap and recycle the batteries used in our solutions. In 2024, around 20 batteries were collected and recycled from our Midlands Hub. Not only saving us money but just as importantly, lowering our carbon footprint by disposing of the batteries in the correct manner.
  • We have taken steps to help reduce our energy consumption over recent years and continue to commit to this through new innovations. Technological upgrades such as movement sensors and timers in our lights, hand dryers and eco-friendly heating solutions have been installed in our head office

We have several initiatives in place that helps wildlife preservation in our local area. Amongst these include a bee hotel and a hedgehog home that is maintained by our staff. 

The importance of bees to the environment and global eco systems are well documented, and our choice for hedgehogs is close to our industry, with an estimated 1/4 of the population of hedgehogs being killed on UK roads each year.

We also maintain an on-site flower bed with plants monitored by our team, in an effort to give back to the environment and bring some added  natural beauty to our local area.

Mobile Visual Information Systems

01629 580 570

MVIS, Units 6-8, Brookfield Way, Brookfield Industrial Estate, Tansley, Matlock, Derbyshire. DE4 5ND

© 2022. Company registered in England No. 8130402 - Registered Office: Units 6-8, Brookfield Way, Brookfield Industrial Estate, Tansley, Matlock, Derbyshire. DE4 5ND