Head of Safety dept doesn't have his CDL

Its the way of the beast.. you think these companies want someone in the position who knows anything? They are a direct threat during lawsuits to them and their bottom line. They want the uninformed in these positions to that when the inevitable happens, they can set the person up to take the fall and they can also jump on the bandwagon to feign surprise at the person's lack of any real world experience. The safety departments of most companies no longer have former drivers in it.

 

I say this with 28 years of class A experience, former fleet owner and owner operator turned safety and compliance consultant. Having a safety director with a CDL is not required, nor is it a good idea.

Your beef is that someone that has never driven a truck is telling you what to do and how to do it, giving advice on safety and such. Well, just look around and tell me honestly how many of our fellow drivers actually know what they are doing and are being safety minded. The last thing we need is a former "super trucker" in the safety office telling you how he used to do it, and "teaching" you the tricks and shortcuts.

Throughout my career, prior to become self-employed, every one of the ex-drivers I worked for were awful. They simply wanted me to bend or flat out ignore the rules so they could make a few more pennies off my labor, all while shifting the risk onto me. No thanks.

A safety director needs to be someone with great attention to detail, a head for facts and figures, great communication skills and the heart of a teacher. They can easily learn what the best practices for safely operating a truck are and pass that info on to drivers without ever having driven a truck themselves. It is not rocket science. That said, they need to be compassionate and understanding of what we face daily as drivers, but they also need to fully understand the regulations, laws and consequences of violating those rules.

A great leader, or even manager, does not need the technical skills that their team does -that is why they hire professional drivers, mechanics, administrative assistants and such. The best leaders or managers need to understand how people work and how to foster good relationships that make the entire team function as one. Perhaps those that have had issues in the past with non-drivers acting as safety directors or dispatchers just have not worked for a good leader?

Same goes for dispatchers and load planners, their job is to be a logistics specialist and see the big picture -something that a driver can not do from their cab. It may not always make sense what a dispatcher is assigning us, but we do not know the whole story behind why that decision was made.

 

Don't know if our safety guy has a cdl, but he's like yours a former DOT officer and knows the rules inside and out.
Helluva nice guy, know his *hit

 

Just cause you have a cdl doesn't mean anything. It just proves you passed the test.

 

I learned to drive working summers washing tractors at a cement terminal where my Uncle's office [regional maintenance manager] was located. I 'graduated' to any dirty jobs the full time mechanics wanted to dump on the 'college kid' and they soon grew tired of pulling in and parking trailers so they got me bringing in my own work. Eventually [pre-CDL days] I grandfathered my license to include big trucks

First job out of college was working for the shop of a small construction company, running for parts, fueling the jobs and moving the equipment with a tired '68 R model pulling a Rodgers Croucher low-bed.

I graduated to dispatching for a small petroleum hauler and helped moving stuff around the yard

After getting married moved to NJ and ended up with an Auto Articulated ticket but working in operations for the carrier my uncle worked for and was educated by the regional safety guy about the logs I recapped, Inspection reports I filed, etc.

I ended up in operations at a few smaller carriers, responsible for driver files and more until the new owners pushed me out to hire a relative.

Ended up hired at a local Matlack terminal to ride with drivers to establish their experience under the upcoming Right to Know regulations which grew into being a 'Certified Driver Trainer' coordinating the field training of CDL grads who attended our advanced course pulling tanks 1/2 full of water. Working with a few chosen drivers we spent 30 days of OJT with the new grads before the were approved to join the union.

I moved on to operations manager for the US arm of a Canadian carrier and then for an environmental clean up firm to find out they make the trucking industry look good. When it didn't work out [I had been approached by the President of Krajack to fill his vacant safety director spot] so I moved to Safety.

In addition to every training seminar I could get to they also paid for two NATMI courses; Motor Fleet Safety Basics and Managing Motor Fleet Safety Programs. but time ran out on receiving the accreditation that would allow me to use the initials CDS [certified director of safety] and become a person who was paid to testify in court cases.

I have been a safety director since the late 90's and as Krajack went under I ended up at an Inter-modal carrier and was bounced after an audit over a Haz Mat incident where a ton of false logs were found, something they wouldn't let me fix the whole time I was there but since the HM stuff was in order, the $6,000.00 fine for the transgression was overcome by the $16,000.00 the logs cost. My replacement was a trooper retiring from HM duties and he only lasted 5 years too!

The past 9 years I am at a smaller inter-modal carrier slowly heading for retirement...

My desk and book experience grew tremendously but I still value the experience behind the wheel and feel it helps me communicate with our drivers and independents.

I know a brake chamber from a slack adjuster, etc. something the book only guys can't do...

 

Interesting and only the environmental guys and the inter-modal companies are still in business.

EPA and NJ DEP ended most chemical production round these parts.

 

MTO? Is he from Ontario? What’s his name?