The RailStaff Awards 2024

Paula Gray

Said the following about David Carns - **HAS LEFT**:

“For the Midland Metro Alliance, customer service is not simply a token gesture within working hours. It is the entire package offered by a supplier representative in terms of experience, knowledge, a willingness to support and an ability to deliver.

Since we met Davie he has been available both on the phone and in person, whenever needed either to source the right person or to advise on legislative aspects of employment. His knowledge base of contacts and options within the rail industry is immense, and unusually for a recruitment professional, he is happy to share and help educate others.

We have received support from Davie at some extremely unsocial hours and even during his annual leave.

Especially crucial is his ability to collaborate with other organisations - a very important trait in Alliance and Joint Venture work, but also a rare skill, because it is a difficult working environment. Davie has excellent interpersonal skills which have enabled him to navigate and resolve issues with ease, and become an intrinsic part of our supplier network.

He has not let us down and has become our go-to resource for knowledge advice on resourcing.

Supply Chain Management is not just about cost, quality, knowledge share and collaboration skills are what is needed to guide the rail industry through this next age of development, and Davie is a fine example of these traits.“

Matthew Cardiff

Said the following about David Carns - **HAS LEFT**:

“Major projects within the UK, such as HS2 and Midland Metro, are about building a lasting legacy for the UK and delivering an infrastructure that doesn’t just work for the few but for the many. These initiatives are built on a foundation of partnerships and talent. If the industry is committed to improving productivity and achieving the significant growth needed to drive innovation and deliver these projects on time and to budget then collectively we need to focus on training and development within key customer service areas as well service delivery.

During David Carns’ time working alongside the Midland Metro Alliance at their site in Bilston he worked in partnership with local agencies, colleges, charities and government departments, such as The Black Country Impact project, Job Centre Plus, Youth Promise Plus, Probation Services, Evolve, BMET College, High Speed Rail College, Birmingham City Council, Talent Match, Enable, YMCA and St Basils, to ensure that all labour for this project was sourced locally. Before each person was rostered for work David interviewed each of them personally to ensure that only the very best was rostered for this job. This resulted in a 100% of those assigned to the project turning up on time with the correct work ethic. David was also paramount in ensuring that everyone returned home safe everyday through his safety stand-downs that helped to improve working practices on site and remove any hazards that could impact of the health and well-being of those involved. To Dave, safety and workers are the held in the upmost importance and he continues to this day to design key initiatives to ensure workers are not affected to negatively from the affects of hot weather. Dave supplied each worker with their own water bottle and provided clean drinking water for each during this recent heatwave. Furthermore, he worked tirelessly to ensure that all workers have the correct PPE for their particular competence and was well maintained. In a 2 week period David was asked to find and roster 80 workers for the Bilston road project whilst running the day to day operations of the Safety Critical Labour department for RSS which he was successful in doing.

David was also an instrumental part in the formation of the armoury of fleet management tools that have been embedded into all of the vehicles. He helped RSS become one of the first company’s in the rail sector to utilise a specialist Driver Awareness Warning System (DAWS) for the transportation of its workforce to site. The move was sparked by increasing industry concerns over the transportation of workers to site, which highlighted that many fatal accidents occur when workers are en-route to site or returning home. The system has been fitted into every fleet vehicle used for transporting safety critical and contingent labour to rail engineering and construction sites across the UK. The warning system is a dash-mounted device and focuses on the driver’s retina and measures their ‘blinking pattern’ sounding audible warnings if signs of drowsiness, fatigue and/or attention is diverted from the road.

He also realised the importance of installing vehicle tracking system (VTS) as well as a dash-cam installed to protect the driver and third parties. Through his forward-thinking RSS is now able to use data captured from the VTS to identify trends to improve driving performance through advisement and training as well as impose additional control methods. Real-time footage captured from the dash-cams is instantly available so that the company can assess the severity of any incident and provide instant support and assistance.

To improve passenger safety David worked alongside other key RSS personnel to develop a solution to the industry wide issue relating to passengers and drivers not using their seatbelt when in a moving vehicle. The seatbelt covers that David helped to design have been constructed out of the same high-visibility material used for Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE). The rationale for this is firstly symbolic as it demonstrates to the person getting into the vehicle that the seat belt, as with the PPE clothing, is there to help protect and save lives. Furthermore, the reflective nature of the material acts as a reminder when in a low visibility environment that the seatbelts have been fitted and are available for use. The vivid colour and reflective material of the seatbelt covers also helps to advertise their use to other colleagues and the wider public, which has resulted in usage levels increasing within the wider driving community and will lead to a reduction in injuries.“