In March, our Safety and Loss Control Director Evan wrote about how we're improving safety by tackling three main goals over the next three years:
- Achieve zero lost-time accidents.
- Enhance safety trainings company-wide.
- Reduce preventable vehicle accidents by 25% each year.
To help reach our goals, we put together a backing rodeo, challenging 68 employees to navigate obstacle courses while driving backward. Participants included employees from all three of our main solutions centers in Cassopolis, Paw Paw, and Tecumseh:
- Linemen
- Fiber installers
- Fiber maintenance techs
- Bird-dogs
- Stockroom team
- Propane operations team
- Fiber business team
- Fiber engineers
- Staking team
The Big Day
One obstacle course was set up for a digger derrick with a trencher trailer, and another was set up for a bucket truck with a single axle reel trailer, as well as a pickup truck with a standby generator. Both courses tested employees on pre-trip inspections and driver safety rules.
Employees first drove forward serpentine, then backed through a long path. While haze from wildfires in Canada made things slightly uncomfortable, everyone pushed through and successfully completed the courses.
Closer to the Goal
The rodeo was a huge success and a valuable, unique learning opportunity.
“This training may seem basic to some, but to others it is more difficult,” said Evan. “This was a great opportunity to train our employees on different backing techniques and to give them more skills to prevent backing accidents both at work and at home.”
Our mission is to deliver first-in-class innovations and solutions where others won’t. By implementing new training programs like the backing rodeo, we're ensuring our employees have the necessary skills to do so.
