Steve Sommer
Sole Trader – Self Employed
Darlington
01325 463154

WORK EXPERIENCE

Sole Trader
Self Employed – 2017-07 – Present
Freelance Transport Manager / Transport Safety Consultant
External Transport Manager
Transport and Transport Safety Consultant

Fleet Manager
Groundwork Services Durham Ltd – Durham
2017-02 – 2017-06
Management of Transport Operations at Groundwork Services Durham Ltd. and North East Tippers Ltd. HGVs (Rigid Vehicles and Articulated Vehicles and Trailers) and LCVs Management of Drivers/Garage Workshop/Purchasing/External Maintenance

Transport & Compliance Manager
Ward Bros (Steel) Ltd. Group – Sunderland
2016-02 – 2016-08
and Newcastle-upon-Tyne sites)
Management of Transport Operations (including Workshop, Mobile Plant and Fixed Plant Operations) and Compliance (Health & Safety, Environment and Quality Management including Liaison with HSE, EA, VOSA/ DVSA.
Management of Rigid HGVs (Skip Loaders and Hooklifts)and Articulated Vehicles and Trailers.
Liaison with a large customer base to ensure collections are efficient and cost effective
Production of relevant cost analysis/kpi’s – controlling Transport & Plant aspects of P&L Management.
Liaison with Company Insurance Brokers ref. Policy renewal.

Saria Group Transport Safety Manager / SecAnim Ltd., Widnes Site Transport Manager PDM Group / Saria Ltd
2011-04 – 2016-02
Responsibility for all Widnes site Transport Operations, (including Drivers, Transport Office, Garage Workshop and Vehicle Wash), and Mobile Plant Operations (Fork Lift Trucks, Loading Shovels, Shunt Units, MEWPs).
Management of Rigid HGVs (box vehicles, skip loaders and bin lifts) and drivers, Trailers (Bulk Tippers, Curtain siders, Tankers and Refrigerated types) + Owner-Drivers, Sub-contractors and Third Party Hauliers.
Management of Site Garage Workshop including Maintenance Work Undertaken for Third Parties.
Management of Health and Safety in relation to all site Transport Operations.
Management of Warehousing/Storage facilities for outgoing and incoming goods including export products.
Production of monthly vehicle cost kpi’s + provision of costing information for procurement team ref. new customers and reviews of existing customers.
Liaison with customers ref. collection/deliveries and changes in requirements including ‘out of hours’ response to customer needs.
Management of Saria (PDM) Group Transport Safety – all 21 UK sites including Mobile Plant Operations, Training and Purchasing/Leasing.

Management of Lochgelly
Scotland – Transport Management – Lochgelly – 2009-02 – 2016-02
Health & Safety and Environmental Management and Development of customer base (Feb 2009 to Feb 2016).

Group Transport Safety Manager
PDM Group
1999-09 – 2011-04
Responsibility for Implementation and Management of PDM Group Transport Safety – 21 sites – including undertaking of comprehensive Risk Assessments and Production of job related Safety Manuals.

Transport & Raw Material Manager
PDM Group – Darlington
1990-09 – 1999-09
Responsibility for Darlington site Transport Operation, Health & Safety, Workshop and Warehousing. Responsibility for management of Site Raw Material Collection Customers

Transport Co-ordinator &Marketing Assistant
PDM Petfood Divison
1988-06 – 1990-09
Organising transport and control of packaging purchasing for 3 production centres.

Research & Development Technician
PDM Group
1985-06 – 1988-05
New product trials – commissioning new process plants – animal feed products.

Freelance Writer
UK Music Press
1981-08 – 1985-05
Self-employed Writing reviews/features for national titles and record companies. in spare time up to present.

Key skills and achievements

Transport Management
Achieving an annual reduction in transport department costs of £300,000.00 per annum in ref. Widnes site transport dept. Successful Management of Widnes customer base (animal by-product/retail/food waste collection points serviced using bulk trailers, bulk vacuum tankers, skip loaders, Terberg bin lift vehicles and trailers, rigid box tail lift vehicles and trailers) and deliveries from site to customer. Gaining ‘Authorised Repairer’ status for leased/hired trucks at Widnes. Successful Management of Export Transport including liaison with DEFRA approved vets and related agencies Managing increased additional work for the company’s AD Plant collection rounds – increased fleet from 6 to 15 vehicles with no impact on site overheads prior to ‘handing over’ to a dedicated AD Supply Chain Co-ordinator. Implementation and management of ‘live’ data recording of collection service using hand held PDA system

Health & Safety Management
Reduction of PDM Group Motor Insurance Premium through implementation of a comprehensive range of Risk Assessments, Safe Working Procedures, Introduction of Driver and Garage Workshop Manuals and reduction in cost and number of Insurance claims. Setting up and managing Driver Training Programmes in conjunction with the Driver CPC across Group sites Implementation of regular audits regarding transport safety and transport operations management. Development and Implementation of COSHH Risk Assessment programme for Transport Operations. Development of Mobile Plant Training Program including successful compliance for fully funded NVQ level 2 Operator Training for all operators at all PDM Group sites.

Sales(Scotland)
Increasing customer base by 40% and expanding range of waste collection services to all areas of Scotland. February 2015 Review of customer price base enabling site to achieve increase in revenue of £205,000.00.

Systems used
MS Office (including Outlook), MS MapPoint, Fleetmatics, QTrail, Masternaut & Satrak vehicle tracking systems, Tachodisc & Tachomaster Digital Driver Management/Analysis, Smart Analysis for Digital Drivers

Training and qualifications

CPC (National Road Haulage Operations)
NEBOSH General Certificate in Health & Safety
IOSH Managing Safely
3 ‘A’ Levels (Maths, Physics, Computing Science)
7 GCE ‘O’ Levels
Clean Full Driving Licence