Member Article

Stockton's HCS makes team and tech investments

The emergency drain clearing arm of a North East civil engineering firm has bolstered its team with two key appointments and an investment in technology.

HCS Drain Services, a division of full-service civil engineering firm The Owen Pugh Group which operates from premises in Stockton and Blaydon, has seen Paul Laidler join as operations manager and Paul Bowers as planning manager taking the number of employees within the business up to 45.

The business has also invested £70k in traffic management software that will ensure the company’s drivers and fleet operate more efficiently.

Laidler boasts 20 years’ experience in the drainage industry, initially working as a Jetting Engineer for DCS Ltd before spending almost 15 years with Lanes Group plc, progressing from CCTV Team Leader to Operations Manager where duties included overall responsibility for the day to day resources allocation of the depot, budgeting, managing the individual teams within the division, scoping and pricing work and quality control.

In his role at HCS Drain Services, Laidler’s responsibilities will also include undertaking Health and Safety audits, producing risk assessments and method statements together with safe systems of work procedures.

Paul Bowers has almost 25 years’ experience in the sector, working within Darlington Borough Council’s environmental team for 18 years before undertaking a roles within Yorkshire Water and Lumsden & Carroll. Expertise includes managing vactors and CCTV units, investigating and managing pollution issues and more recently undertaking the role of operations manager at Lumsden & Carroll with overall responsibility for a 28 strong team.

Under his remit as planning manager for HCS, Bowers will be looking at systems and processes with a view to further improving efficiencies and customer services across the business. Duties will include managing the company’s job management system and planning works for all teams to maximise productivity.

Both Bowers and Laidler will be instrumental in delivering a number of high profile contracts recently secured by HCS, including providing drainage and asset management support to Durham County Council after sister company Owen Pugh GDC was awarded preferred supplier status earlier this year.

Commenting on the two new appointments, Chris Raby general manager at HCS Drain Services, said: “Paul Laidler and Paul Bowers each boast a wealth of experience in the drainage sector, which will be a huge asset as we continue on our growth trajectory.

“The business has secured a raft of work in recent months on the back of significant investment in vactors, specialist vehicles which broaden the scope of the work we are able to undertake. The two new recruits will ensure we continue to deliver high standards of customer service while investigating new business opportunities and looking at further improvements to ensure we operate in the most efficient way possible.”

In addition to the investment in people, DMS Jobflow software has been installed in HCS Drain Services’ 22 strong fleet. Each vehicle now has a tablet communication device which is able to alert each driver to their next job in the most efficient way possible, which will reduce the company’s administration, increasing time spent ‘on the job’ by operatives.

Drawings and photographs are able to be shared via the tablets back to the office which will be a huge efficiency benefit, reducing time spent returning to base for paperwork. Client feedback will also be available immediately on completion of works.

Raby added: “By installing DMS Jobflow software into our vehicles we will be able to undertake more integrated and efficient route planning and job processing, ensuring that our vehicles operate as efficiently as possible by reducing ‘empty’ mileage and improving our carbon footprint.”

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