| I was just thinking about an old friend from the | | | | - Second, try to get all this paperwork stuff |
| MO National Guard a few days ago. His name was | | | | figured out so the DOT doesn't shut you down. |
| Mike and he was in charge of a construction | | | | There are about four different types of |
| platoon. He was a skilled plumber and project | | | | paperwork: |
| manager, and I told him I was impressed with his | | | | - Driver Qualification |
| skill set. | | | | - Drug and alcohol testing and record keeping |
| "Plumbing is Easy" he said, "there are only a few | | | | - Hour of Service monitoring |
| things you have to remember:" | | | | - Maintenance management |
| - Righty tighty, lefty loosey | | | | Once you get a handle on these things,shift your |
| - Hot on the left, cold on the right | | | | focus to accident prevention. |
| - Payday is Friday | | | | The FMCSA calls this the 'accident |
| - Don't chew your fingernails | | | | countermeasures system': |
| You know, I thought, this idea of breaking down a | | | | The first part of every accident counter |
| process into several simple imperatives can be a | | | | measures system is, try really hard not to have |
| valuable tool. | | | | wrecks. |
| So when Mike was running a renovation project, I | | | | As simple as that sounds, you need scheduled |
| made a list of the things he had to do to be | | | | safety training to focus drivers on just driving |
| successful: | | | | safely. |
| - When tearing down, work from the top down | | | | The real job of a safety manager is to develop |
| - When building, work from the bottom up | | | | an organized approach to accident prevention, and |
| - Get older workers to be patient with younger | | | | a HUGE part of this job is driver safety training. |
| ones | | | | You will need an internal accident register. Then, |
| - Get younger workers to listen to the old hands | | | | you need to study it. |
| - Detect defects early so they can be repaired | | | | Look at all the minor accidents and near misses |
| with a minimum of demolition and reconstruction | | | | and try to identify a trend. |
| - Schedule material deliveries to avoid work | | | | Then, ask yourself the three golden questions of |
| stoppages | | | | accident prevention: |
| - Entertain visiting officers so they don't interfere | | | | 1 - Based on this set of observations,what type |
| with the project | | | | accident is most likely to occur? |
| Like Sun Tzu's 13 principals, you can apply this | | | | 2 - Based on the same set of observations, what |
| concept to anything worth doing. | | | | is the most serious accident you can foresee? |
| People in the trucking industry would like the | | | | 3 - What can we do differently to keep (1) and |
| whole DOT compliance system to be broken | | | | (2) from happening? |
| down into bullet points and printed on an index | | | | Once you have answered the three questions, |
| card. | | | | stop the cycle of crashes by putting a |
| Now, I don't mean to say DOT Compliance is | | | | "Countermeasure" in place to stop it before it |
| more complicated than construction or plumbing, | | | | happens. |
| but I'm not sure I can actually get it down to 7 or | | | | Quite often, but not always, the answer is "get |
| fewer bullets or one card. | | | | drivers to do this or stop doing that -- this is why |
| But I will try to make it really simple and easy to | | | | driver training is such a big part of accident |
| remember. | | | | prevention." And don't chew your fingernails. It can |
| - First, be safe - no one can afford the real costs | | | | cause stomach problems. And make your hands |
| of accidents and fatalities | | | | look funny. |