A film has been released by the FTA that contains the death of a child has been released in order to demonstrate the significance safety and compliance throughout companies van operations. The FTA, or the Freight Transport Association is thought to be the largest freight transport membership orientated organisation in the UK. The Organisation is working to make the van transport safer.

The film is entitled ‘One Fateful Day’ and depicts a van driver who has become distracted because her is having to talk to the office on his phone. As the film develops it is uncovered that the van is defective and the driver is also under the influence of drugs. All of these factors will lead to disastrous effects for the driver, company owner and the operations manager.
The film has been developed by the Head of Vans at the FTA, Mark Cartwright. Mark has also been working to recreate the scenario as part of a number of Van Excellence Operational Briefings around the UK. The Film and the scenario has been created in order to raise more awareness of distractions when driving and making sure that the vehicles are all compliant which is the association’s focus for this year. The film has taken a few years to be developed, and the intent of ‘One Fateful Day’ is to be hard hitting and emotive in order to make van drivers and companies think and act in order to make sure that the dramatic and horrific events that take place in the film stop taking place in real life. The film that has been released covers a number of failings that are commonly seen as part of the transport industry. The Van Excellence scheme has a code of practice that gives operators the capacity to make sure that they are meeting basic standards laid out as part of the membership of the scheme. It is thought that the code of practice has been created by some of the best operators in the industry and states clearly what is required from members.