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Edition #63 | Winter 2020

Dear Readers,

a turbulent year is coming to an end. Ever since the spring, COVID-19 has been confronting both companies and individuals with new and unknown challenges. For the AVS Group, it has become clear that the crisis management introduced in 2019 has given us a lot of tools to deal with the new situation. Many processes such as employee qualification, supplier management, fleet management and occupational safety have been analysed and updated this year. In spite of a frequently-changing market situation, we have been able to remain true to our motto: “We bring safety to the road”. To provide our customers with the best possible service, we have continued to grow by establishing new locations and making acquisitions in Germany and internationally. With the expansion of new product areas such as traffic congestion warning systems, we are moving further into the digitalisation of transport technology.

Even in challenging times, we take to the road pragmatically, reliably and innovatively – for the new year, all the lights are at “green”.

We wish you and your families a restful end to 2020 and health and confidence for 2021.

With my best wishes
Dieter Berghaus, Member of the Advisory Board

Berghaus and AVS NEWSLetter – NOW ONLINE!

A further step towards digitalisation.

Berghaus & AVS News is going digital. Why? Because extraordinary times call for creative measures. Measures that put one thing first: protecting the health of our customers, business partners, employees and all those close to them. Many are in their home offices and keeping up-to-date with the digital edition of our NEWSLetter. Enjoy the read!

Thank you for visiting us online and taking another step towards digitalization with us.

  • Hendrik Hucke CEO AVS Group
  • Andreas Schwingeler COO NATIONAL AVS Group
  • Dirk Schönauer COO INTERNATIONAL AVS Group
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Sustainability in the AVS-Group

Sustainability at AVS means taking responsibility for people and the environment.

Throughout the Group, we put our understanding of sustainability into everyday practice, to make the best possible use of our Group’s potential. We get to grips with a wide variety of sustainability issues, so that we are always in compliance with the law and current standards and keep to internal guidelines. But in particular, we also do this to continuously increase the attractiveness of our group of companies.

To strengthen the sustainability of our company, we initiate activities based on various sustainability criteria, known as ESG criteria.

ESG: Environment – Social – Governance.

Once a year, we prepare a sustainability report, otherwise known as an ESG report. This report is a transparent account of how we position ourselves in terms of these criteria and which activities we have already successfully implemented.

Environment

  • Sustainable commercial use and reduced use of resources is our abiding principle. This is how we establish new sites, such as the new building of our subsidiary WaKo in Memmelsdorf-Schmerldorf, Germany
     
  • Sensitising our employees to energy consumption in team meetings and with flyers ensures lower energy consumption – it has been proven that visualising energy consumption alone reduces consumption by over 30% in the long term
     
  • Conducting an energy audit in cooperation with a certified partner to comply with the EU Energy Efficiency Directive and to determine current energy costs, and deriving measures to increase energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption – including replacement and renewal of lighting, use of LED lighting

Social

In the AVS Group, people work for people – to ensure your safety on road construction sites. And we like to do something for our employees:

Corporate and management culture

  • Diversity management: equal opportunities and equal rights as part of the AVS Code of Conduct

Onboarding process

  • Revision and structuring of the process so as to convey information about AVS in a consistent and complete manner (onboarding flyer, 'Start at AVS' on the intranet, support from mentors, etc.) to retain employees and increase employee satisfaction from day one

Employer attractiveness

  • Introduction of corporate benefits

Health and safety at work

  • In-house occupational safety unit

  • Selection of new work clothing to ensure the safety of our employees and set a group-wide standard in accordance with legal requirements

  • Safety training (initial and annual training)

  • Company integration management: group-wide common plan for implementing legal requirements, though even more to investigate the causes of employees’ periods of incapacity to work and to look for ways of avoiding, or at least reducing, periods of incapacity to work in future

  • Online training / driver instruction in line with UVV [German Accident Prevention Directive] and in cooperation with partner Dekra to verify the suitability of the driver

  • Occupational safety training, according to the latest standards and supported online from 2021, will keep everyone up to date at all times. For new employees, training is part of the onboarding process

  • Continuous improvement of work processes – e.g. loading the ProTec mobile safety barriers (weighing several tons) with a specially-designed forklift truck (link to separate article), cleaning safety barriers with forklifts specially converted according to our own plans, or using our ultra-modern water jet and the AVS PeelJet – the PeelJet carries out marking-removal work in combination with the necessary sweeping

Governance/Management

  • Online training courses, on topics such as compliance basics, prevention of corruption, information security, antitrust law, awareness in financial transactions (money laundering), social media etiquette and data protection, training that is flexible in terms of time and place, preparing our employees for current challenges, and providing them with the knowledge they need
     
  • Annual internal data protection audit by an external data protection officer
     
  • Regular information for our employees on current topics such as COVID-19; posters and mailings, together with intranet articles on conduct and safety in the workplace, operating instructions and provision of protective material – we make our contribution to keeping us all healthy and fit
     
  • Risk management
     
  • Supplier management

“At AVS, people work with people for people. Our goal is to make a positive contribution to our society and to do the best we can to be an attractive company for our current and future employees, customers, suppliers and partners. That is our responsibility.” (Hendrik Hucke, CEO)

Work processes made easy

We make our work processes more effective and safer using vehicles specially developed by and for ourselves. Our vehicle fleet is specially designed to meet traffic safety requirements. Our employees' many years of experience inform the development of special vehicles. With special vehicles or superstructures, we can thus help to optimize assembly and disassembly times. This ensures greater public and personal safety, efficient work processes and rapid construction site completion – and therefore fewer traffic jams.

Marking-removal work

Our marking-removal machine is designed to meet the latest requirements of different road surfaces and markings. Marking removal is carried out by a moving vehicle and using only water - without chemicals and without damage to the road surface. An environmentally-friendly solution that also shortens dismantling times and reduces traffic jams.

Edition 63

Dear Readers,

a turbulent year is coming to an end. Ever since the spring, COVID-19 has been confronting both companies and individuals with new and unknown challenges. For the AVS Group, it has become clear that the crisis management introduced in 2019 has given us a lot of tools to deal with the new situation. Many processes such as employee qualification, supplier management, fleet management and occupational safety have been analysed and updated this year. In spite of a frequently-changing market situation, we have been able to remain true to our motto: “We bring safety to the road”. To provide our customers with the best possible service, we have continued to grow by establishing new locations and making acquisitions in Germany and internationally. With the expansion of new product areas such as traffic congestion warning systems, we are moving further into the digitalisation of transport technology.

Even in challenging times, we take to the road pragmatically, reliably and innovatively – for the new year, all the lights are at “green”.

We wish you and your families a restful end to 2020 and health and confidence for 2021.

With my best wishes
Dieter Berghaus, Member of the Advisory Board

Heavy material – safe and easy loading

Our new Linde forklift truck was specially designed for loading mobile safety barriers weighing several tons. With a lifting weight of 16t and a lifting height of 5m, the forklift makes short work of loading a truck. Loading times are reduced from 45 minutes to less then 15 minutes – the construction site can be equipped efficiently and quickly. Our employees are well protected during the loading process – instead of using the loading crane, with the risk of suspended loads, and manual assistance, loading is carried out by the forklift driver and the truck driver – who acts as a guide. Both remain safely in their cabs.