Research into the health and safety culture within Shell Plc in the UK retail forecourt market compared to other UK retail forecourt businesses

Price, Richard John

Abstract

Shell is an organisation with a health and safety reputation second to none in the field of Oil exploration, extraction, refining and delivery as fuel for the retail forecourt industry.
They have a robust set of rules that governs how health and safety is to be managed on the Shell retail forecourt site, that are aligned to the International Oil and Gas producers core set of 9 lifesaving rules.
Shell’s safety record in the UK marketplace speaks for itself and is a testament to the approach and health and safety culture fostered by Shell and their collaborative partnering organisations.
However, it is always prudent to assess the rules and compare with like for like retail forecourt providers to ensure the rules are still appropriate or require refining and more importantly are not too onerous or creating an overly bureaucratic burden on themselves and their partnering organisations and their supply chain.
This research study focused on four key areas:
• How is HSSE carried out differently within Shell compared to the other U.K. Forecourt providers?
• Are the U.K. statutory requirements closer to as low as reasonably practicable and as such no additional requirements are needed?
• How easy is it to procure new contractors based on existing HSSE requirements?
• Is there added complexity and duplication that can be avoided by consolidation?
Methods of analysis included responses to an online survey, face to face interviews (post covid19 rule relaxation in effect) and onsite visits to observe the HSSE culture in practice, this was key to observe how all the HSSE practices and indeed culture is delivered at the frontline by operational staff. Reponses to the online survey can be found in section 8 of this report.
The results from the analysis of the online survey data and interview process, show a very positive view of Shell’s health and safety culture. The culture developed by Shell is deemed to be ‘best in business’ both anecdotally and from the online responses received.
The study finds that apart from some double counting of forms, there does not appear to be as much bureaucratic overhead as was perhaps originally envisaged when undertaking the research study. The conclusion within this research study has identified five key points that would enhance Shell’s HSSE culture.
• For small to medium projects a paperless site management system integrated with Shells’ online systems would ensure easier and on site management
• Implementation across all the PMC/FMC programmes of digital collaboration would make it easier to share legislative documents
• Develop a system of geographical location sub-contractor selection
• Greater integration of documentation across the supply chain
• Greater engagement with Shell retail, focusing on information, training, and project programming

Citation

Price, R. J. (2022). Research into the health and safety culture within Shell Plc in the UK retail forecourt market compared to other UK retail forecourt businesses. (Thesis). University of Hull. https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4224458

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Nov 23, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 24, 2023
• Keywords: Occupational health; Chemistry
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4224458
• Additional Information: Department of Chemistry, The University of Hull
• Award Date: Jun 1, 2022