Last month a team from Logistics (Tuxford) attended a local school fair in order to teach the children there the importance of cycle safety. This safety lesson took place in the form of a series of games. This educational visit has come from the focus of the company to develop relationships within the local community while also promoting DS Smith culture, which emphasises health and safety. The focus of health and safety is important at the Tuxford Logistics site.

For the workshop, children explored the Health and Safety risks that can be apparent from a lorry driver’s perspective. In order to achieve this the children at the fair were asked to guide a remote controlled lorry around a track that was dotted with hazards. These hazards included other lorries, cyclists and a plane constructed by DS Smith colleagues. The track for the remote control lorries passed through the DS Smith Supply Cycle, from the recycling of paper its transformation into packaging and then heading back to recycling.

DS Smith’s display of a life size DS Smith lorry, bunting, banners and cardboard dinosaurs were effective in attracting the children to the stall and getting them to take part on the educational game. When the children managed to successfully navigate the course, they were awarded with a card DS Smith driving licence which was headed with the company’s safety mascot, Boxy. Following this, the children moved on the forklift challenge, starting with a scale model, fully functioning forklift with was used by the children to lift small boxes and a pallet onto a larger box and then back down again in order to receive their forklift driving license.

It is great that the Tuxford arm of DS Smith Logistics is getting involved with the local community by offering these safety lessons at a neighbouring school. The games were also an innovative way to teach the children about cycle safety while also demonstrating the DS Smith Supply Cycle.