Multevo recently joined the Shropshire Highways Alliance, which was formed by Shropshire Council, Kier and WSP, to deliver better value for money for the county’s road users and local communities.
Following a series of trials, Multevo joined the alliance and from March 2021 ramped up monthly permanent road repair rates to 9,000m2.
Here, Josh Sweeney, director of marketing and growth at Multevo, delves into the contractor’s culture and how it will be integrated throughout its collaboration with the Shropshire Highways Alliance.
“For the first seven years of trading, Multevo operated as Multihog UK – selling, hiring, and servicing our innovative range of Multihog multi-purpose vehicles to councils, contractors and airports.
We soon identified that not every customer had the desire or resource to self-deliver using our equipment and we set about to transform the company to include a service delivery model to meet the needs of the market.
From day one, our internal mantra was to ‘be a tier one to the tier ones’ with the aim of being an exemplar partner in the industry. This has now organically evolved to support customers in all areas of our expertise from highways, winter services, drainage, civils and verge maintenance as a reliable one-stop shop to support our partners and their client’s long-term needs.
"The Shropshire Highways Alliance is a great example of how close supply chain collaboration from the onset can serve the strategic initiatives of the client."
The Multevo method means assisting customers in all areas while working towards the same goals. We do this by undertaking site surveys, raising permits, programming works and recording quality, safety and productivity in real time through the use of our bespoke technology, the Multevo App. We are very proud to be able to work as part of the Shropshire Highways Alliance to bring about significant advantages to the network and people who use it.
A series of trials were undertaken specifically reviewing different machines and methods aimed to tackle problematic potholes to find a more permanent and cost-effective solution. In these trials, we were able to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Multihog road planer machine through dramatic improvements of permanent road repair productivity whilst increasing efficiency.
We utilise the innovative Multihog machine as part of our offering to the Shropshire Highways Alliance, to permanently repair different shapes and sizes of defects in a single visit for a cost-effective square metre rate. This unique approach enables the teams to tackle both reactive and routine enhanced patching to preserve the longevity of the asset whilst reducing disruption to road users.
Permanent first-time-fix repair rates have already soared to around 150m² per day and based on these achievements, the number of teams have trebled to three in total, each deployed in different areas. This means an impressive average of 9,000m² can be now completed each month – approximately three times more than what was previously completed.
This relationship has evolved with the needs of the contract to tackle challenges as and when they emerge. As a forward-thinking, multi-faceted firm this has led to supporting the Alliance with larger surfacing schemes and engineering projects in addition to pothole and patch repairs.
Our approach to the partnership isn’t just about doing the job right, it’s much more than that. We’re embracing a positive culture across our teams and working in synergy with Kier and Shropshire Council to exceed expectations and establish a partnership that works for everyone.”
Andy Wilde, head of highways at Shropshire Council, comments: “We recognise the benefits that this process can bring, and we’ve certainly been very pleased with the way that the work has been delivered. The amount of work that can be done in a day is really changing things significantly for us.”
James Birch, managing director for local highways at Kier, said: “Utilising Multevo with the Multihog is very fast, its efficient, its cost-effective, and it reduces health and safety risk of HAVS exposure to our teams. This process reduces traffic movement risk for our valued highways operatives as well as decreasing the time required on site within traffic management setups which greatly reduces network disruption for road users.
“Multevo are taking the same journey as the other partners in the alliance which is important and we’re all working as one unique team to deliver the best possible service for the council and communities.”