The Road to Safety Newsletter
February 2011

Dear Aaron,

The theme for the February newsletter is all about challenging everyone at your company to be better. Call it a "Safety Throwdown". In working with hundreds of trucking operations over the years one common thing that we have found is that the hardest thing for most companies to do is to take a hard look at the culture and systems that they have in place and admit that the results that they want to achieve may not be possible unless they change what they are doing.

In the Yellow Van Tour this year we will focus on identifying your weak areas and working to change things to help strengthen your operations. I hope you enjoy the articles below and I challenge all of you to really think about these questions - Am I satisfied with my/our results? Can I/we do better?

February 2011 Issue

Volume 4, Issue 2

In This Issue

A Common Vision?

A Safety Throwdown

2011 Event Schedule

A Common Vision?

You have rallied the troops, got everyone excited about taking on the challenges of the day, and cry out for everyone to charge to the top of the mountain! You rush to the top of the mountain ready to bask in the glory of victory only to turn around and find that each person went to the top of different mountains. This is what happens when everyone does not share a common vision of what is important and what needs to be accomplished. Each person at your company sees the world through a different lens and has different ideas of what "success' looks like based on what is important to them personally and their role within the organization. You said go to the top of the mountain but didn't say which mountain right?

If you have been reading this newsletter for a while you may remember the article about the "Good Driver". Try this simple exercise to see how different lenses see things - simply have everyone write down what their definition of a good driver is and see how many different responses you get. If your organization is like most you will get several very different answers some of which are totally incompatible with each other. If all of these competing ideas are not somehow joined together you will never achieve the success that you would like to attain.

The first step in establishing a common vision is to get input from everyone involved. This input helps you figure out where everyone is starting from and what needs to be done to try to get each person on board. Communication is also vital to keeping everyone on the right path. Everyone must understand where the company is starting from, exactly where you want to get to, and how you are going to get there. Take these first steps and you might be surprised by the ideas that you come up with. Keep in mind that this is not a one and done process. Culture must be constantly cultivated, and ongoing communication will be needed to keep everyone moving down the same path.

It's a Safety Throwdown!

When challenged most people will respond and step up their game. Those who do not step up should not be on your team. Drivers are no different. One of the biggest positive things to come from the CSA program is that drivers are now engaged and paying attention like never before. Since everyone now has a shirt in the game trucking is truly becoming a team sport.

Drivers are just one position on the team though. The team also includes ownership, dispatchers, maintenance, safety, recruiting and everyone else. I am issuing a Safety Throwdown to you and everyone on your team to take a look at where you are on accidents, violations, customer service, CSA, and every other area of safety and honestly ask yourself if you are satisfied with the results you are getting. If you are not satisfied take a good look at your systems that you have in place because most of the time your system gets the results that it is designed to achieve. Even if you are satisfied can you still do better?

I have been asking drivers that question in meetings for the past year and the vast majority of the drivers step right up and say "we can do better". Sometimes there is resistance and rationalization as to why why the results are not as good as they could be - just remember this is a natural human response. But also remember that in order to achieve better results that you must not allow denial to derail the process. Denial is a powerful defense mechanism against change and until you convince someone that there is a need to change they will never be ready to do anything differently.

The easy thing to do is to blame the results on the scoring system, unfair inspectors, the four wheelers, or any other easy target. But to be really honest we must then ask why are other drivers or other carriers out there who have to deal with the same challenges doing better than we are? That is when the Safety Throwdown begins - are you going to let those other drivers or carriers show you up? If they can do it why can't we? To answer this question requires a raw look at everything, which can make some people uncomfortable but is necessary to succeed - are you up for the challenge? I think you are, and if you need some help please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

2011 Event Schedule

After many phone calls, emails, and changed plans we finally have most of the dates and locations nailed down for our 2011 safety events. This year we will continue the Yellow Van Tours along with the DOT Compliance seminars that we do for various state trucking associations. Yellow Van Tour seminars are special free events that are reserved for MJAI clients. The DOT Compliance seminars are open to everyone and the trucking associations handle all registrations and do charge a fee to attend. MJAI volunteers our time and talents for these events as a service to the associations and the industry. Below are the dates and locations for 2011:

Yellow Van Tour: