Winter Gritting

Winter Gritting

 Our nationwide winter gritting service has an established, market-leading track record of providing award winning specialist winter services.

Our mission is to be the preferred supplier for quality winter maintenance, winter gritting, snow clearance and specialist de-icing products to keep estates free of snow and ice, ensuring sites remain safe, compliant and operational even through the harshest winter weather.

Contact us…

For over 20 years we have been providing market leading Winter Gritting and have more combined winter experience in our wider team and managers than any other organisation in the UK. Our winter services are all ISO accredited, 9001, 14001 and 45001. Including our multiple industry awards, we have also written the UK Winter Maintenance industry guidelines and best practice in association with the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM). We understand that the implications of getting timing or delivery wrong can have profound consequences for our customers, operations, and reputations. OUTCO utilises the latest precise weather forecasting technology to ensure that we service individual sites based on the most accurate data available. While the industry–standard operating practice is to grit based on red trigger levels, OUTCO will keep you covered on amber level warnings as well. 

Winter Weather Forecasting

OUTCO’s weather data is provided by the industry’s only winter-dedicated forecasting provider, MetDesk, who currently provide forecasting for the UK Highways and Rail Industry. Forecasting accuracy is at an industry-leading 97.8%, delivering the most accurate road surface temperatures and data available. Accurate data ensures we are fully prepared ahead of time to ensure effective service delivery. MetDesk has created a purpose-built weather forecasting system for OUTCO which is integrated through API into our service management platform, NIMBUS, and provides an automated process to activate a service visit, based on the agreed RST trigger. This automated process works through the import of tens of thousands of cells of weather data and cross references with the requirements of each individual client/property requirement.

Transparent Winter Gritting Service

No matter where you are, you can have immediate visibility, peace of mind and see the level of data we are recording to demonstrate your duty of care is being met. We provide regular scheduled customisable reports, real-time service reporting and performance analytics aligned to your suite of KPIs, using our App, web-based portal and or email notifications of intended activity and any escalation processes, additional services, or deviation from the agreed plan in response to any inclement or severe weather. These will usually include:

• Daily pre-service notification reports: (daily service program)
  These details of works scheduled for the day, based on forecasted weather, and activated as per agreed service activation parameters (e.g., RST is 0 degrees or below). The report provides data for every site under management – site reference no.; site name; job type; warning level (red/none); minimum road surface temperature; minimum air temperature; total rain (mm); snowfall (cm).
• Post-service notification reports: (daily activity summary) confirmation of works completed, including time-stamped visit times, and detailed service information will be submitted by 8am the following morning advising any exceptions only to the service plan.
• Monthly attendance/ activity report: a summary report of our service delivered for the past month, providing tabulated service data for every day of the month and a graph detailing RSTs against activated visits since service start.
• Added data verification: All service vehicles are fitted with our own developed fleet management system, allowing managers to view the live positioning of each vehicle throughout the area where service is being delivered. It automatically interacts with the site boundaries loaded into NIMBUS to record attendance on each site, against prescribed arrival times, so we always know when our teams arrived on site and how long they were on each site.
• 24/7 Helpdesk – We operate a winter helpdesk 24/7/365, with dedicated helpdesk personnel. This helpdesk service provides single point contact for all queries, available for the recording of any incident or fault to any asset, system, or premises. The select team of highly skilled, thoroughly trained helpdesk personnel are proficient in problem solving and adaptability, thus well-drilled in all eventualities arising. This ensures that all information is kept right up to date so everyone can access real time data.

Winter Gritting

Winter Gritting Equipment

Across the UK operate a fleet of vehicles consisting of 4×4 pickup trucks, 3.5t flat bed and 7.5-ton gritting rucks, each one fitted with either towed or mounted spreading equipment and snow ploughs which can be attached when snow is forecast. Each vehicle is GPS tracked and is either dedicated to specific single sites or used regionally to service multiple local client location. For additional support we have long term contracts with local farmers and plant hire companies for access to heavy duty snow clearance equipment which can be deployed on an ad-hoc or dedicated basis to provide snow clearance to sites. We use BOSS salt spreaders and snow ploughs and are the UK’s sole importer of BOSS equipment from the manufacturer in the United States. Boss are part of the Toro Group of companies which is a global market leader in grounds related equipment manufacture with $3.9bn in global sales. This relationship guarantees that we always have equipment, including spares, in stock.

Winter Gritting Operators

OUTCO operates the only LANTRA accredited Winter Gritting and Snow Clearance Training in the industry with all staff receiving pre-contract induction and on-going training on working safely and in accordance with our Operator Manual, including our risk assessments and method statements (RAMS), and are not allowed to work on sites until their line manager has confirmed that they have both received and understood the training. The OUTCO Academy training helps operatives improve techniques, promotes safe working practices, including risk assessments and method statements RAMS and includes advanced driving skills. Each operative is subsequently set yearly assessments with your target SLAs as their minimum target. We expect our operatives to exceed these targets as part of our in-house annual assessment. For our operator trading we require a 100% success rate, this is for all jobs completed, reported correctly and for the inspections to verify this. Training is refreshed at our annual mid-season training to ensure standards are maintained. If following an inspection an Operator’s work is found to be below the required standard, the operator will be withdrawn from service immediately to undergo retraining.

Winter Gritting Materials

We will use marine salt for non-specialist areas and Omex or urea for specialist areas such as multi storey car parks. Noting that we may advise alternate spread rates from time to time (depending on the prevailing conditions). For the gritting service we use pure White Marine Salt (BS 3247:1991):

• Marine salt is harvested from sustainable sources using natural sunlight and is a renewable resource.
• The material contains 99.8%+ effective de-icer by volume (sodium chloride), with a composition by weight of 39.4% sodium and 60.6% chlorine.

Pure sodium chloride is a colourless crystalline, does not stain and will dissolve into a saline solution leaving no visible residue on surfaces. All salt is stored in suitable facilities as a minimum on hard standing concrete base, typically in a purpose-built confined area and covered with heavy duty plastic sheeting in accordance with BS3247:199. It is covered to eliminate leaching, unnecessary overspend and environmental damage. All storage facilities are compliant with our ISO:14001 environmental management system. Materials are delivered/stored in five main strategic network hubs then distributed to over 350+ salt storage depots all over the country which enables us to deliver to multiple sites.

Winter Gritting Indemnity

OUTCO defends claims against clients and was involved in defending a claim against one of its clients in early 2022, which resulted in the claim being thrown out as OUTCO was able to demonstrate that the client had met its duty of care. OUTCO carries full public liability insurance and claims defence, and that we carry all the necessary indemnities to cover any loss during the service or subsequent losses as a result of failed service performance.