Home FleetWatch 2011 Manline wins our green star award

Manline wins our green star award

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IN THE MARCH edition of FleetWatch we awarded our first Green Star award to Renico Construction for ‘˜greening up’ the outside of their premises. We urged other trucking companies to follow its example by greening up their premises and to send us any photographs for publishing.

While we have yet to receive any response to that invitation, FleetWatch editor Patrick O’Leary recently attended a function at Manline in Pietermaritzburg and found in this company another worthy winner of our Green Star award.

Not only has Manline planted grass and trees on the outside pavement making it look neat and tidy in stark contrast to some of the rather bleak surrounding properties, but it has taken the landscaping scene inside its head-office premises to create a truly magnificent environment that cannot fail to impress and impart a sense of well being to both staff and visitors.

It all starts at the entrances , two separate ones for visitors and their own truck drivers , where a neatly trimmed hedge borders a green expanse of pavement grass with indigenous trees rounding it off well.

Inside, the theme is continued with wide expanses of lawn flowing behind the head-office and in front of the fuel bowsers, vehicle washing bay and workshops. Colourful flowers and shrubs, neatly trimmed hedges, young healthy looking indigenous trees and strategically placed garden features make the overall scene a true pleasure on the eye.

What I find most encouraging about this set-up is that it dispels the myth that transport companies cannot operate in a ‘˜green’ garden type setting. “Sure that’s good for head-office but not for a vehicle yard and workshops,’ is the defensive argument normally given.

Well, at Manline’s premises you have a head-office, a truck parking yard, a wash bay, a fuel refilling area, workshops, a training center, a driver rest and recreation centre as well as parking area for staff cars , and it’s all encompassed in a beautiful garden setting.

So much for transport having to operate in grease and grime conditions. In fact, I deliberately took note of the fuel filling area and it’s spotless with no sign of old spill marks on the concrete. The workshops are equally spotless.

Accompanying this article are a number of photographs of the premises showing Manline as a worthy winner of our Green Star award. Take a look at them. You can do the same. Please try , even if it’s not on such a grand scale – and we’d love to hear from you on how you’re brightening up your premises. Your staff, by the way, will love it, as will your customers.