What is your Safety Management Cycle (SMC)? Can you easily answer that question? The FMCSA describes the SMC with this Graphic representation. This easy to understand image describes the construct of a SMC. Now, how do you meet the criteria?
Have you addressed this subject within your company? If so, where does it start with you? With the acquisition and implementation of a Transportation Safety Systems (TSS) Safety Management System, you can address this issue confidently and with clarity.
Once you make the decision to create a safety culture at your company, with your TSS system, the first step is a management review in which all managers answer some simple questions in a questionnaire provided. This information will be compiled and stored within the system. Your General Manager reviews responses to determine how to best implement and utilize the TSS resource.
When you implement the TSS system, all of your employees and drivers are entered into the system for you. You have the ability to track the progress of your various safety-sensitive departments with easy to understand reporting. Your policies and procedures are uploaded into the TSS program, thus providing your employees with the opportunity to review and refresh their knowledge of how your company runs. As the employees complete this step, the data is recorded within your TSS system.
By reviewing the policies and procedures, you are able to assign who is responsible for each component of your SMC. A date stamped document stored within your safety management system for reference, and is easily updated for reference. By clarifying who is responsible for which role, you begin to effectively train your drivers and employees according to their needs.
Once you implement a TSS system, you can easily go back and identify which employees are using the system and completing courses. As the data builds, with monthly reviews, you can identify personnel who may need assistance or attention. New hire employees will see the tool as a part of your organization, whereas existing employees may see it as an imposition. Training your personnel accordingly helps with qualification, hiring, advancement decisions.
With the built in email distribution tool, you are effectively able to communicate with all of your employees in real time. You can send out priority messages instantly, and with the post feature, you can convey information with an email notification and a standing message that can be reviewed at any time. All communication is documented within the safety management system.
The built-in monitoring and tracking tools help you identify areas for improvement. Identifying drivers who are not participating can help you address potential issues and future collisions. Reviewing who is participating and their success rates are essential to creating a safety culture within your company.
Identifying potential issues and addressing them before an accident happens is paramount. Simple steps such as removing a driver from the dispatch until such time as they are current with their training can help reinforce a safety culture. Implementing a review program that will require a drive test prior to re-entry to driving after remedial training can be beneficial. Utilizing the built-in Driver and Manager annual review tool will help you assess the needs of the driver.
Using the annual review tool helps you determine the success of your program and provides the data needed to determine what steps you need to take to improve your Safety Management Cycle. This tool can be used to incentivize your employees. With the built-in tools, you determine who should receive wage increases or promotions. Correlating annual reviews with crash and incident data, drive camera coaching opportunities and various other metrics, allow you to determine how your workforce is performing according to your safety culture.
As you have completed the first rotation of your SMC, you begin again with manager and employee reviews. By completing this cycle annually, you document the safety culture of your company and formulate new policies and procedures to effectively address shortcomings in your SMC. With the implementation of a TSS system, you now have the answer to the initial question, “What is your Safety Management Cycle?”
With a TSS system, there is a repository for all of the things you will need to create a documentable safety culture within your business. With additional features such as the pre-boarding and mid boarding tools, sales training, reasonable suspicion, manager training, reporting and assessment tools, you confidently know that your team is doing their best to provide great service at the highest level of safety possible. TSS offers other customizations to help your team perform efficiently and consistently, so when a DOT audit occurs, you have the data to show them how you have addressed your SMC.
Your new TSS Safety Management System is your go-to resource for your day-to-day activities. The TSS system helps you effectively run multiple locations consistently. A TSS system has you covered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, via cloud computing.
We would love to show you how the TSS system can address your SMC and create a culture of safety within your company.
Please call or write • Marty Sederberg, Sales and Development
marty@transportationsafetysystems.com • 206-999-3619