The months have flown by in a year that has been as successful as it has varied here at Highway Care.
Talent at the heart of our business
As always, our people have been instrumental in our success, and we’re grateful to all the colleagues, customers and supply chain partners that contributed to our achievements in 2023, including those who have left us for pastures new over the past year.
New Head of Marketing and Communications, Hayley Terrell joined the company in January to spearhead our internal and external communications, and we welcomed a raft of new talent in including Head of Barrier Operations, Mark Greenfield, and new members of our operations team.
We also gained a new Head of Finance, Ken Hutchins, a new Head of Business Development, Ryan Croft, and boosted our business development team with new hires Kevin McGrath, Stuart Wright, Jonathan Pratt, and Melanie Powell. Graduate, Annie Boyd joined us in the new role of Commercial Assistant, and we will be supporting her in her HNC studies as we invest in the next generation of talent for our business and our sector.
Not all our team news has been about new hires, we’ve also celebrated some key milestones for Highway Care faces who have been pivotal in building the business over the decades too. Commercial Director, Ben Duncker, celebrated 20 years with the company, while our Chairman, John Talbot was recognised with a Lifetime Achievement Award at Highways Heroes.
We are also supporting our people with the tools they need to drive our continued success, with a renewed digital outlook, which has also seen our IT function grow.
A whole new look
2023 saw us introduce a new look for Highway Care, keeping the familiar blue and yellow, while updating our logo, which sits proudly across our brand new website – www.highwaycare.com. Designed with ease of navigation and clarity in mind, our new site is a platform we can now be proud to promote, and a convenient touchpoint for our customers.
This fresh new look went on tour with us to the Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG) Innovation Festival in July, several customers’ innovation days, and to Highways UK in October, where our giveaways scraped a smile and broke the ice as people stepped onto our brand new stand.
Over on the security side of our business, we demonstrated our range of physical security solutions for protecting places and people alongside our partners, Crowdguard, at the International Security Expo. This year has seen an exciting array of crowded spaces protected by our partnership, from Beyonce concerts to St. Patrick’s Day parades.
At the heart of our sector
We were proud to sponsor the Maintenance Efficiency Award at the Highways Awards once again this year, presenting the award to Connect Plus Services for the work they’re doing to optimise their programme on the M25, supported by our Falcon ACLM.
Our Operations teams have been busy throughout 2023, deploying our BG800 portable steel barrier at the M25 J10 improvement works for Balfour Beatty plc, and BG800 has also contributed to the safety of infrastructure improvement as the HS2 project continues to progress. At Junction 5 of the M2, both BG800 and QMB have been deployed for GRAHAM Group and the Road Zipper has also been in use for Operation Brock, the emergency contraflow system that keeps traffic on the M20 moving when there is disruption ferries crossings across the English Channel.
We’ve also shown our support for campaigns to end worker abuse in the highways sector and the #giveaconeacuddle campaign, which saw the industry come together to raise funds to help little Isla, granddaughter of popular and respected highways industry figure, Martin Duffy, who needed treatment for cerebral palsy in the USA. It’s amazing to know that our combined efforts raised the £25K necessary to send Isla for treatment, and we had fun naming our cone – Toblercone – posing for pictures and even involving it in our Halloween celebrations.
Marking more milestones in the UK and around the world
2023 has been a year of milestones – and accolades, too. We marked the first anniversary of the Falcon ACLM deployment and saw the deployment of our SwiftGate automated taper system at the A3 Hindhead Tunnel in Surrey in partnership with National Highways, Kier Transportation and Versilis.
We’re also pioneering strategies to protect work areas from vehicle incursions during roadworks, with a successful trial of our RB50 by FM Conway Ltd.
Our urban crash cushions have been making waves over the past few months too, with the SMA Road Safety Janus energy absorbing, double-sided, bidirectional crash cushion winning an LCRIG Innovation Award.
And let’s not forget our international achievements, with HighwayGuard™ officially becoming the lowest deflecting portable barrier in the world, receiving Technical Condition of Use in Australia and New Zealand.
What next?
It’s nice to look back, but it’s even better to look forward.
We’ll be starting the year by focusing on people once again as we host a one-day stand down event for the Highway Care team that will bring all our colleagues together to learn, plan and connect as we begin a new year.
Alongside the commercial value we’re targeting, we’ll also be putting a clear focus on social value. Our charity in 2024, voted for by our team, Macmillan Cancer Support, has already been selected and the team will be raising funds in all kinds of creative ways to help us reach our £5k charity target.
Every new year brings with it new opportunities: at Highway Care, we’re excited to see what 2024 has in store and to continue working closely with our customers, partners, and supply chain partners.
