Trucking Safety Systems: A Series

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Introduction

Welcome to the first of 10 articles in a series on safety systems in the trucking industry!  Throughout this article and the ones that follow, I will be describing the purpose of safety systems in the trucking industry, their subsystems, and how their many components interact in the day-to-day operations of a commercial carrier in Alberta.

As this series progresses, we will look more closely at different aspects of safety management systems that are found in Alberta’s trucking industry.  But first, let’s introduce high-level descriptions of systems, safety systems, and management systems that will provide foundational information for the articles that follow.

What is a system?

Individual carrier operations are complex, and when one looks at how different carriers, shippers and receivers, and regulators interact in the broader world of logistics, the complexities become deeply perplexing.  To coordinate the massive efforts needed to maintain our global supply chain, systems exist at all levels of organisations to coordinate labour and resources in the effort to achieve goals.

According to Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, a system is “an organized set of ideas or theories or a particular way of doing something” [1].  Systems in organisations like companies often take the form of policies to establish outcomes, procedures to attain goals, directly responsible individuals, training, and a mechanism for monitoring the system’s success.

Simply put, a system is a way of accomplishing something.  Many people have their own personal systems for the routine tasks they must perform on a regular basis; when asked how or why someone is doing something, a common utterance is “that’s my system” or something similar in spirit.

Systems give us the ability to repeatedly apply a method and, through repetitive and pre-meditated action, the ability to inject predictability into our otherwise chaotic lives.  So whether we are talking about a system for monitoring compliance with hours of service legislation (with all of its metrics and internal auditing cycles) or a system to make sure I remember to bring a clean change of clothes to the gym on workdays (with all of its cell phone reminders and sticky notes), when we talk about systems we are talking about ways people and organisations structure their actions to regularly and consistently produce desired outcomes.

Management and Safety Systems

According to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), a “management system is the way in which an organization manages the interrelated parts of its business in order to achieve its objectives” [2].  It is simply a system that has been pressed into service for the purposes of a business or other organisation, and the management system can be altered to serve a variety of purposes including health and safety management, financial planning, and project management. 

Within the broad management system that runs an organisation, smaller, more focused systems often exist.  One such example is a safety system, and based upon all of the talk about systems above it should be fairly obvious that a safety system is a method for managing the health and safety outcomes for an organisation.

Safety systems often have many outcomes and objectives.  They are normally concerned with eliminating and controlling loss, where loss may refer to financial costs resulting from equipment damages and/or the human costs resulting from injuries and fatalities.  Safety systems are also frequently associated with the management of risk.

Management and safety management systems may be the creation of an organisation’s ownership or management; organisations may also adhere to a pre-existing framework.  A pre-existing framework may take the form of a standard that is published and administered by a separate organisation.  For example, a Certificate of Recognition (COR) is a common example of a voluntary health and safety standard for companies in Alberta [3].  If a company wants to, it may implement a health and safety management system that is in compliance with COR requirements; once done, an external auditor comes in to verify that the COR requirements have been met and, if so, begin the process of issuing a COR to the business.

Trucking Company Safety Systems

Trucking companies are no different from any other company in the sense that they can benefit from robust safety management systems to meet safety and compliance goals.  However, the systems needed by an individual carrier must be tailored to the organisation’s specific operational needs if the system is to be most effective.

Safety systems that exist within Albertan trucking companies assist safety professionals, owners, and managers in meeting compliance needs and in the management of risk.  While all activities fit somewhere within the broad, overarching management system of the organisation (which may be as formal as the adherence to an ISO standard or as informal as the unwritten but routine way in which an owner handles certain situations), carrier systems can be dissected into subsystems that each handle certain aspects of the carrier’s safety and compliance system.  Some examples of subsystems include:

  • Hours of service monitoring;

  • Maintenance tracking;

  • Driver qualification verification, and;

  • Safety program auditing.

In subsequent articles in this series, I will examine subsystems found in carrier safety management in greater detail.  Additionally, I will be taking a look at how the internal safety systems a trucking company can control interact with the external safety systems they cannot control which are in use by organisations like roadside commercial vehicle enforcement and carrier compliance monitoring by the Government of Alberta.

Summary

John Ruskin, a Victorian-era writer and philosopher, said “Quality is never an accident.  It is always the result of intelligent effort” [4].  One such way in which we can apply our efforts intelligently is through the use of thorough and well-documented systems.  It is my hope that this series of articles will give the reader greater appreciation for the necessary complexity found within strong safety management systems while shedding light on the path to safer practices so improvement seems less daunting.

References

1 - “System”, Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, accessed September 4th, 2021, https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/american_english/system

2 - “Management System Standards”, International Organization for Standardization, accessed September 6th, 2021, https://www.iso.org/management-system-standards.html

3 - “Get a Certificate of Recognition (COR)”, Government of Alberta, accessed September 6th, 2021, https://www.alberta.ca/get-certificate-recognition.aspx

4 - “News”, Laura’s Beau, accessed September 6th, 2021, https://www.laurasbeau.co.uk/news-and-blog/news/quality-is-never-an-accident-it-is-always-the-result-of-intelligent-effort-john-ruskin/

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Dave Elniski

Since graduating from the University of Lethbridge in 2013 with a Bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and women and gender studies, my professional life has included work in health care, the Canadian military, speech and presentation training, writing, and the trucking industry.

My Bachelor’s degree included research in both biology and women and gender studies. This combination of science and social science research has given me a unique skill set for solving problems for organisations.

I have received my Certified Transportation Safety Professional (CTSP) designation from the Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA) and am proud to be amongst the first graduates of the program. The CTSP stands out from other safety credentials as it is specifically designed for the transportation industry.

My Associate Diploma (ATCL) from the Trinity College London, England has given me specific skills and techniques for delivering speeches and presentations. These are skills that help me communicate ideas to stakeholders.

I have worked in the trucking industry as a driver and safety professional, and the majority of that has been with companies hauling flatbed freight in Canada and the USA. In that time, I have written on a variety of topics and regularly contribute to industry publications.