The North and South Ready Mix Divisions held Driver’s Meeting’s for all employees this winter. The meeting’s covered safe driving, truck inspection, safety, and product knowledge and customer service. I feel the meetings were very beneficial to everyone that attended.

     The annual Supervisor’s Safety Meeting was held on February 8^th and 9^th in Brooklyn. We covered Drug and Alcohol Training with Nate Andrews of the IHP and Linda Moyna of Moyson Resources.  Phil Mercuris of Master Builders of Iowa covered the topic OSHA and Our Industry. Bill Martin from Skiff Occupational Health discussed Occupational Injuries. Charles Black from the Iowa Illinois Safety Council talked about seat belt safety and helped us kick off our Mandatory Seat Belt Program.  Chad Beneda and Carol Spear from Liberty Mutual discussed Worker Compensation issues.  Dan Boyer went over harassment, EEO and other Human Resources issues.  I discussed Incident Reporting, Toolbox Talks and showed the Video “Safety Leadership.”  Linda Moyna put on a Team Building presentation that was very well received.  Aaron Walker of Eagleone Safety Solutions did a presentation on Accident Investigation.  Fravel Combs, Safety Director from M.A. Mortenson, shared a presentation on their Zero Tolerance for Incidents program and how the program had improved their safety culture and therefore their bottom line.  We also had many speakers from different divisions recap the previous season and inform the attendees of upcoming changes for next season. Overall the Supervisor’s Safety Meeting went very well, from comments I heard from those that attended and stayed awake.

      How the information put forth at the meeting is utilized is up to the board members, upper management and the supervisors in attendance. They are the people the entire company is looking to for guidance and leadership by their actions. Holding a two day meeting that everyone agrees was a good meeting, does not change anything if positive action isn’t taken to take a “Zero Tolerance for Incidents” stand by everyone involved. After the meeting Fravel Combs asked me if we required every employee to wear hard hats and safety glasses on a daily basis since that should be a basic safety requirement. I told him we did not and he asked me why we didn’t require the basics. I don’t know the answer to that question other than someone might quit if we did that? Maybe we should start with the basics and build from there. Drew Manatt and Doug Harms videotaped the meetings so we can have anyone that didn’t attend, still be able to see the presentations and we can also use them for employee training tapes. Thanks to Drew and Doug.

     The Iowa Ready Mix Concrete Association’s annual convention was held in West Des Moines in early March. We had 20 plants receive “Honorable Mention” Safety Certificates and our West Des Moines Plant won their division and received a plaque. Honorable Mention means the plant had no OSHA Recordable Incidents and did not have an at fault driver do more than $2000.00 damage to a truck. To win the plaque the plant has to meet the same criteria but the tiebreaker is the amount of concrete hauled per truck at the plant. Congratulations to Carey Courtney and the drivers at the West Des Moines Plant and the other twenty plants also.

     The new season will be going full bore soon. Be safe and watch out for your fellow employees.