Going
the Extra Mile for Safety Leadersh
ip
As far as
Manitoba success stories go, it doesn't get any more home-grown than Arnold Bros.
Transport Ltd. Started in 1958 by two brothers from rural Manitoba transporting
their grain product to markets across the province and in the U.S., the company
has since grown to a business that employs drivers (company and owner
operators), mechanics and office personnel at locations and yards across the
country.
Continued success through safety
This year marks the company's 60th anniversary - 60 years
that have brought significant change, as well as the need to evolve to stay
successful and competitive. One way that Arnold Bros. Transport has worked to
ensure this continued success has been to commit to safety and to pursue the
SAFE Work Certified designation for their business.
"We've
always had a concern for safety in our workplace and we've often been asked by
our customers 'Tell us your safety plan and what you do for security and
safety', but we also recognized that we required a more transport-focused
safety program," said Rob Wensel, Director,
Driver Services and Safety & Compliance, Arnold Bros. Transport.
Making the commitment early-on
With assistance
from RPM, the industry-based safety program for the trucking industry, Arnold
Bros. Transport evaluated their business practices and made a commitment early-on
in the process to build a culture of safety that went beyond the requirements
for certification, and instead set the goal to make their workplaces safer for their
workers.
"For us a
culture of safety is one in which everyone is thinking about safety. We want to
ensure our employees go home safe at the end of the workday, and, that as a
company, we are allowing our employees to be safe at work. We want employees to
be able to come forward if something isn't safe," said Don Binda, Chief
Operating Officer.
Launched by
SAFE Work Manitoba in January 2017, the SAFE Work Certified program works with
industry-based safety programs, such as RPM, to deliver customized safety and
health certification to Manitoba businesses in trucking, manufacturing,
construction, motor vehicle and agriculture. Each of these industry-based
safety programs bring an in-depth understanding of the unique safety and health
challenges for their respective industries, and can offer knowledge, experience
and solutions specific to the industries they support.
"When the
Manitoba Trucking Association announced the launch of RPM, we saw it as a
focused safety program and the perfect opportunity for us to combine all the
different things we were doing for safety, " said Wensel. "For us
safety wasn't a major shift, as we were already a safe company, we just needed
some help in formalizing it all and SAFE Work Certified helped bring it all
together."
Shift in attitudes concerning safety
Arnold Bros.
Transport achieved their SAFE Work Certified designation in November 2017, and
their renewed commitment to safety hasn't gone unnoticed by employees nor by the
company's safety and health committee. In the three years since he's been with
the company, Tyler Bennett, Yard Maintenance and Dock Foreman and a member of
the company's safety and health committee, says he's seen a shift in how the
company talks about safety and has seen the attitudes of employees also move
towards being safer at work.
"At first,
safety changes were met with some resistance, but I've learned that you can
teach an old dog new tricks and soon everyone started to see that this whole
approach to safety isn't a money thing or about making things harder for
people, it's about keeping people safe and healthy," said Bennett.
Bennett says
that Arnold Bros. Transport has also worked hard to partner with its safety and
health committee and has demonstrated a willingness to take action to implement
recommendations provided.
"Management
has helped us out and has been very co-operative when we've proposed
changes," said Bennett. "Now we've got mandatory safety vests in the
yard, safety signage throughout the yard, better air quality in the shop, and
we're making it safer for drivers by putting in side grab handles on trailers."
While being
SAFE Work Certified comes with the reward of a prevention rebate of 15 per cent
of their Workers Compensation Board (WCB) premiums, Arnold Bros. Transport insists that the financial incentives are not
the main motivator for the company to become safer.
"None of
us in management want to be in the situation where we have to talk to a spouse
or a significant other and tell them that their loved one isn't coming
home," said Cindy Harrison, Director, Human Resources. "This is about the people that work here,
keeping them safe and making safety front and centre of everything we do."
To learn more
about Arnold Bros. Transport visit:
https://www.arnoldbros.com/
To find out how
you can take the next step towards achieving safety excellence for your
business with SAFE Work Certified, visit:
https://www.safemanitoba.com/safe-work-certified
