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Some good safety news for a change...

JD955SC

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2011
Messages
1,349
Location
The South
The start of the new year marks two years without recordable injuries or fatalities at my shop. Not even any fairly minor injuries beyond your normal minor scrapes and very minor cuts that are pretty much unavoidable but no need to report- and our company will at the very least issue a safety alert thru the company for just about anything- they even issue near miss reports.

Our other shops in the dealership chain have also done pretty well for the most part. No fatalities and few moderate injuries. Couple of more major incidents. Nobody killed or maimed.

All in all, very happy to be working for my dealership and with the focus on safety- and real safety, not idiots sitting in an office coming up with ways to keep the job being done. For the most part, the safety measures are fairly sensible and the shop managers don't push us to rush and forgo taking the time to do the job properly and safely.
 

old-iron-habit

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2012
Messages
4,233
Location
Moose Lake, MN
Occupation
Retired Cons't. Supt./Hospitals
Good to hear JD955SC. It's great that you work for a company that cares enough about safety to get the safety gear you need and allow the time to work safe. I'm sure it pays of well for the company. The company I retired from said that company wide (2000 plus employees) the average minor injury took the profit from $80,000 of gross work to pay for by the time it was all cut and dried. That did not unclude increased insurance costs.

And the real bonus is that the emplyees go home healthy and not hurting.
 
Last edited:

kshansen

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
11,129
Location
Central New York, USA
Occupation
Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
Where I worked it seemed at times like the way they tried to limit liability was to bring in outside contractors. With them required to have all kinds of their own insurance.

JD, glad you are having a good run of safe work!
 

JD955SC

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2011
Messages
1,349
Location
The South
Where I worked it seemed at times like the way they tried to limit liability was to bring in outside contractors. With them required to have all kinds of their own insurance.

JD, glad you are having a good run of safe work!

Thank you, it is good to work for a place that cares about you and you can really tell they are worried more about your personal safety than limiting liability. My old employer was the kind that didn't really care about the workers safety but instead wanted to sweep any safety issues under the rug.

Good to hear JD955SC. It's great that you work for a company that cares enough about safety to get the safety gear you need and allow the time to work safe. I'm sure it pays of well for the company. The company I retired from said that company wide (2000 plus employees) the average minor injury took the profit from $80,000 of gross work to pay for by the time it was all cut and dried. That did not unclude increased insurance costs.

And the real bonus is that the emplyees go home healthy and not hurting
.

Exactly. Everybody goes home safe and sound plus my company is smart enough to realize that injuries cost way more than taking the time and spending the money to be safe in the first place. Everyone I talk to that has worked for different companies in the same field says we are pretty much tops when it comes to making sure the work gets done safely and correctly. I've heard some real horror stories from other places that make me shudder. This work has a thousand and one ways to kill you in a heartbeat and as a newbie myself, I am extremely glad that there are people looking out for my safety.
 

simonsrplant

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2014
Messages
554
Location
Alberta CANADA
Occupation
Heavy Duty Off Road RSE
A very good way to start the year, and certainly sounds like a good outfit, to all, work safe!
 

kshansen

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
11,129
Location
Central New York, USA
Occupation
Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
While on the topic of safety I will run on a bit about somethings I tried fight with little luck where I worked.

First in reference to job training. Two things I had a problem with was the way when a new person was hired this person was shown just about every job in the quarry. After a couple days say driving water truck they would be put into maybe a Cat haul truck. Then a day or so latter they would be working with the mill operator the the jaw crusher operator. On to a front end loader and then the road sweeper. So for the first several weeks this person would be jumping from one job to the next. I just felt this was too much information to try to absorb in a short time. No problem with them being shown around things but once this training was done they were more or less expected to handle just about every job in the plant.

Next thing I had a problem with was who did the training. I always felt that there should be one or two people assigned to train new people in jobs. Like say, pit loader operator would train everyone on that loader and another operator who loaded customer truck would handle that part of the loader operation. Same for each different type of equipment. These trainers should be the most experienced operators for the equipment being trained on. However how it worked out most of the time is the people training the new people were in fact the ones who often had just started doing that job at the most last year and often much more recent.

The biggest problem I saw with not having the same people doing the training each time is if I train Fred and he remembers 90% of what I tell him then he trains Joe who remembers 90% of what Fred says and then Joe trains Mary and she remembers 90% of what Joe says. Now we are getting to the point 80% or less of the information is getting to the person being trained. And I feel the 10% loose might be a big underestimate for many people. Now if the same person is doing the training all the time and they notice that something is not sinking in to the new person they can adjust how they train and what they focus on.
 
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