CCJ Innovators profiles carriers and fleets that have found innovative ways to overcome trucking’s challenges. If you know a carrier that has displayed innovation, contact CCJ Chief Editor Jason Cannon at [email protected] or 800-633-5953.
From ensuring compliance with regulations to reducing accidents and injuries, safety departments play a crucial role in trucking companies.
However, Andrew Winkler, general manager at Chief Carriers, noticed that drivers often view safety departments with apprehension over concern about potential reprimands for safety violations.
“Many times, it seems like in the industry, when you talk to drivers, they can be fearful of the safety department as a whole,” said Winkler. “We want to flip that; we want to catch people doing the right thing. And when we catch them doing the right things, we want to celebrate that a little bit."
The company started the Red Hat program, which identifies and celebrates drivers that embody the company’s safety values. Every driver is issued with a white hard hat, and when they’re “caught” practicing the company’s safety practices, they get issued a red one.
Winkler explained, “The idea was, anytime they’re out on one of our yards, in our terminals, if somebody – and it could be another driver or dispatcher – catches them in the act of wearing their safety gear and working safely around the truck when they’re tying loads down, that they would be eligible for a red hard hat.”
