3 takeaways from our session at WASTECON
Last month, Fleetio attended WASTECON, an annual gathering of solid waste and resource management professionals employed in the public and private sectors. At the event, Jon Hinkle (Manager, Onboarding Services at Fleetio) and John Byron (Director of Maintenance and Equipment at FV Recycling) co-presented an educational session titled “Creating a Culture of Safety: Essential Elements for Fleet Safety Policies.”
Here are three highlights from their talk:
1. Safety is a shared responsibility
Discussions about fleet safety often center around how drivers should conduct themselves on the road or how operational personnel should handle equipment. But while those topics are undoubtedly important, they shouldn’t be viewed as the only areas where organizations can improve the safety of their operations.
The truth of the matter is that safety is a responsibility shared by everyone at your organization. Managers that truly prioritize the wellbeing of their employees don’t just develop safety policies—they ensure those rules are followed. During the presentation, John Byron put it like this:
…people look to me as an example. If I show up, and I’m not wearing a safety vest, I’m not wearing steel-toed footwear, I’m not wearing my safety glasses, they go “Oh well. I don’t have to do that either, do I?” So it’s really about leading by example. John Byron, Director of Maintenance and Equipment at FV Recycling
Jon Hinkle expanded on John Byron’s point by adding that office personnel aren’t exempt from safety protocols either. He correctly pointed out that, no matter your role, if you step foot in the yard for any reason, it’s imperative that you have appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) on.
Additionally, it’s worth noting that the general public also plays a role in fleet safety, especially when it comes to waste management fleets. According to the National Waste & Recycling Association, motorist-involved accidents are a leading cause of injury to waste and recycling collection employees. They’re doing their part to educate the public on the importance of slowing down when maneuvering past waste collection vehicles, but more voices are needed to increase awareness of this issue.
2. Preventive maintenance improves safety
Mechanics also play an indispensable role when it comes to fleet safety. As Jon Hinkle put it:
The idea here is if you maintain your vehicles on a consistent basis, you will, more often than not, help prevent breakdowns. If you are replacing parts, if you are doing regular oil changes, you are reducing the potential that that truck will break down on the side of the road, which reduces the risk that you expose to your drivers. Breaking down on the side of a busy road is not a great place to be broken down. Jon Hinkle, Manager, Onboarding Services at Fleetio
During the presentation, Jon Hinkle also shared how he was incentivized into holding his shops to high standards when he was a fleet manager for a waste management company.
[As a fleet manager], my annual rating and raise and bonus all had my PM quality and PM compliance built into that. There were other things too, but they were a big factor. It was basically part of my job description that my shops would meet certain PM standards… Jon Hinkle, Manager, Onboarding Services at Fleetio
Jon went on to say that rewarding mechanics at top-performing shops for the consistent quality of their work could also be an effective means of increasing PM compliance.
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3. Safety cultures can’t be built off rules alone
Having a work culture committed to safety at your fleet is so much more than just having well-defined policies. If your personnel don’t value the purpose of safety protocols over getting a job done faster or feeling more comfortable without PPE, those rules are likely to be ignored or, at best, half-heartedly carried out. And this apathy problem isn’t something that can be overcome by developing better rules; it’s much more about winning over hearts and minds.
At WASTECON, Jon Hinkle put it like this:
…have a policy that is short enough to be understood, but long enough to cover everything. But if that’s where you stop, throw the policy out, because if you’re not enforcing and encouraging your policy, it’s no better than the piece of paper it’s on. Jon Hinkle, Manager, Onboarding Services at Fleetio
In terms of tactics for convincing fleet personnel on the importance of following safety procedures, John Byron explained that FV Recycling has had great success with regular toolbox talks. Two or three times a week, his team will huddle up in the morning to review a safety topic that plant managers have recent concerns about.
For example, if plant managers observe some staff members removing their gloves on the job, the purpose of gloves will become the topic of the next morning’s toolbox talk. Importantly, managers don’t scold anyone during these informal meetings. They’ll speak from a point of empathy and acknowledge that your hands can get pretty sweaty when working with gloves. After that, they’ll explain how gloves protect staff from cuts and infections.
This down-to-earth and personal approach is what elevates safety policies from merely being rules in a guidebook to practices that personnel purposefully follow on an everyday basis. And it’s by getting this employee buy-in that fleets develop strong safety cultures.
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