S&W PLANTS RECEIVE NUMEROUS AWARDS FOR SAFETY ACHIEVEMENT
Industry and state officials have presented several awards to our Ready Mix plants and the various departments within our organization.
The Carolina Ready Mix Concrete Association (CRMCA) has an annual award given out to ready mix plants who have met the requirements of the award. There are 3 categories for the safety award, Gold, Silver and Bronze. To earn the bronze award, a ready mix plant must have had no lost time accidents and had no vehicle damage accidents in excess of $2500. The silver award is given to a ready mix plant that has had no lost time accidents and no vehicle accident costs in excess of $1500. The highly coveted gold award is given to the plants that have successfully gone the award year with a perfect record of ZERO lost time and vehicle accidents. This year S&W had 13 plants obtain a CRMCA safety award (0 bronze, 8 silver & 5 gold). Three of our plants (P9, P21, P27) have received an award for 3 consecutive years, one plant (P1) has received an award for 4 consecutive years and another (P8) for 5 consecutive years. HERE is a break down of the CRMCA awards over the previous 5 years.
The North Carolina Department of Labor (NCDOL) is an NC state organization responsible for the safety of workers and the workplace among other things; OSHA falls under the NCDOL. Every year the NCDOL gives out awards to companies that display a safe working environment an entire calendar year. The criteria of the awards is dependent upon the company's incident rates compared to their industry. If a company maintains a lost time accident rate less than half of its industry average then that company earns a Silver Award, but if the company has an incident rate on cases involving days away, job transfer or restriction less than 50% of industry average then they receive the coveted Gold award. Twenty-one out of 25 S&W departments received Gold awards. HERE is a breakdown of the NCDOL awards for the last two years. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF OUR AWARD WINNING PLANTS!!!
ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL CRMCA MIXER DRIVER CHAMPIONSHIP OUTING FOR S&W
For 3 out of the last 4 years, one of S&W's own mixer drivers has done it again!
From left to right:
2nd Place - Jerry Shipton, S&W Ready Mix
1st Place - Brian Winstead, Carolina Sunrock
3rd Place - John Holcombe, Carolina Ready Mix
Jerry Shipton, out of our Holly Ridge Plant, finished 2nd in this year's CRMCA 4th annual Mixer Driver Championship competition in Charlotte, North Carolina. Jerry competed against 25 other mixer drivers from throughout the state in three different catagories associated with mixer driver skills. The first part of the competition was a 40 question test dealing with the 5 modules from the NRMCA's Concrete Delivery Professional curriculum that was administered on Friday night.
Bright and early Saturday morning, all of the competitors came together on the "Challenge Course". The challenge course is basically an obstacle course for mixer truck drivers but instead of running through the course the drivers have to navigate several skill challenges while driving the mixer truck. The final leg of the competition involved a vehicle inspection. Each driver was required to visually inspect a ready mix truck and locate a set number of deficiencies pre-set by the judges.
The drivers and their families were treated to lunch following the competition at which time the awards are given out. Jerry was ecstatic about the whole weekend. "This is probably one of the most exciting things I have ever done! It was a privilege to represent S&W and a pleasure to participate against so many quality drivers throughout the state. I want to thank everyone involved in my preparation, helping me practice before the competition. Especially Mike Ayers for coming out and setting up the mock course and all of my fellow drivers in Holly Ridge and Jacksonville as well as my wife for her support. "
Jerry may now be eligible for the NRMCA National Competition to be held this fall in San Diego, California. Take a moment to congratulate Jerry on a job well done!!
| 2011 ANNUAL SAFETY TRAINING IS UNDERWAY |
Four S&W plant locations completed all of their annually required safety in January. Dan Edens, Area Manager for the participating plants, Wilmington, Supply, Castle Hayne & Southport, contacted the Safety Department about conducting "some safety training". Safety Manager of Training, Mike Ayers, was aptly prepared and showed up at the Castle Hayne facility the next morning. After the Safety Task Assessment (STA)was conducted by Safety Manager Jamie Williams, information about sales and upcoming jobs was shared by Area Sales Manager Tim Wright followed by Mike's Safety Presentation. Topics covered were Lockout/Tagout (LOTO), Confined Space Entry (CSE), Hazard Communication (MSDS), Driver Safety and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and lunch was provided by Dan Edens with the help of Betty Saunders. The training session was a huge success and everyone seemed to enjoy the process much more than they probably thought they would. Johnnie Mathis, freight delivery professional out of Castle Hayne, said, "I really enjoyed this training. It was fun because we laughed but we learned. Everyone that took part got something out of it." The Safety Department is grateful for everyone's participation and they look forward to conducting other sessions just like this one throughout the company this year. Thanks again to Dan Edens and Shawn Baker for making this happen!! |