Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/540088
But building a company dedicated to safety is not that simple. Your efforts must be leader-driven and employee- owned, says author and safety culture business leader Brian Fielkow (www. brianfi elkow.com). "If the leaders are indifferent about safety and just giving it lip service, it is never going to catch on," Fielkow says. "In order for a safety culture to form, it must be enterprise-wide." Safety is about more than rules and regulations: it's about making safety a constant choice. "The focus needs to be on behavior and reminding drivers they control how they drive," Fielkow says. "A driver can follow the car in front of him as if his family was in it, or he can follow too closely," he says. Drivers often take their cues from management. "Some managers either consciously or subconsciously push the driver to bend the rules, and that should never happen in a fl eet with a healthy safety culture," Fielkow says. The bottom line, says Brian Lagana, executive director of the American Trucking Associations' Safety Management Council, "is that from the very top down to the dockworkers, everyone has an absolutely critical role in maintaining the company's safety and building a culture of safety." Check out these three ways to instill safety in every aspect of your business: M ost fl eets and construction companies include a safety commitment sentence in their mission statements. Being "for safety" is as ubiquitous as the "How is My Driving?" placard on the back of trucks. 2 0 1 5 V 2 | B U L L D O G | 7 Starting at the top of a company is critical to building a safety culture, but that commitment must also trickle down. For that reason, Fielkow is a strong believer that operations has a responsibility for safety. The safety department fulfi lls a valuable role, he says, but they are not able to execute on safety the way operations can. "Your safety department can teach, coach, train, and ensure there is accountability," he says. "But if operations doesn't own safety, and every safety issue gets punted to the safety depart- ment, that is not healthy." Jim Anderson, vice presi- dent of safety and risk man- agement at Florida Rock & Tank Lines, a petroleum hauler in the southeastern United States, agrees. "We emphasize our safety mis- sion throughout our opera- tional management from our dispatchers, terminal manag- ers, maintenance personnel and all the way to our safety group," he says. Every individual in the company has to strive to make safety happen. "Part of building the culture is looking in the mirror," Anderson says. "We knew that we had to make some changes if we were going to get to where we wanted to be." And perhaps the most important thing is to set a safety goal. According to Fielkow, the only acceptable goal is zero accidents. "There are plenty of insurance companies or actuaries that tell you that zero is not attainable. But if "you are going to accept one [accident], you might as well accept 1,000," he says. Just because you don't reach that goal the fi rst year isn't a reason to stop Florida Rock & Tank Lines operates Mack trucks in a culture dedicated to best safety practices. Create a 'safety epidemic' 'Part of building the culture is looking in the mirror. We knew that we had to make some changes if we were going to get to where we wanted to be.' Jim Anderson, vice president of safety and risk management at Florida Rock & Tank Lines