Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast

Navigating the Road to Safety with the Fleet Safety Council

• John Farquhar & Chris Harris • Season 2 • Episode 80

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  • Attention truckers! This episode of the TRUCKING Risk and Insurance Podcast features Danielle Levitt and Rick  Brown, discussing the importance of fleet safety and the initiatives of the Fleet Safety Council. Learn valuable insights about driver and fleet safety programs, including the Driver of the Year and Safety Manager Awards. Tune in for expert advice to keep you and your fleet safe on the road!

Fleet Safety Council info: https://fleetsafetycouncil.com/

The Awards: https://fleetsafetycouncil.com/awards/

Award Forms: https://www.ihsa.ca/PDFs/awards/forms/mfm-award.pdf

Guest
Rick Brown
Fleet Safety Council Vice Chair
rickb@fleetsafetycouncil.com



Your Hosts:
John Farquhar
Summit Risk Solutions: summitrisksolutions.ca
1 226 802-2762
John@summitrisksolutions.ca


Chris Harris
Safety Dawg Inc: safetydawg.com
Chris@SafetyDawg.com
1 905 973 7056



Shure MV7 & Chris’s Camera:

Welcome back to the trucking risk and insurance podcast. We're this week. We are talking about fleet safety council. Driver of the year awards and safety manager of the year. Awards stay tuned. Rick and Danielle are coming right up. Welcome to the Trekking Risk and Insurance Podcast.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

Today we've got Danielle and Rick. Danielle, how about you introduce yourself to our audience?

Danielle Levitt, Tandet:

Good morning, Chris. Thank you so much for having us. My name is Danielle. I work with Tandit in the Compliance Department. I've been in the transportation industry for almost 20 years, and I currently sit as the chairperson for the Fleet Safety Council Joint Executive Committee. Wow,

John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions:

20 years in the transportation

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

industry? When did you start? When you were 5?

Danielle Levitt, Tandet:

Love you, John. Thank you.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

Mr. Brown.

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

Good morning, gentlemen. So my name is Rick Brown. I currently serve as a Risk Services Specialist at Northbridge Insurance. And I am also the co chair of the Joint Executive with Danielle. I've been in transit, transportation long enough that I think John only had stubble when, uh, when we first met. So, it's been a little while that, uh, that I've been around.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

Yes, well, and we've known each other from your Niagara Falls days. I don't know, but hey, we're here to talk about the Fleet Safety Council. What? And for the audience here, Mr. Farquhar is also deeply involved in the Fleet Safety Council. I am only a member of the Hamilton chapter, but, uh, Why don't you, Rick, why don't you start off introduce what the hell the Fleet Safety Council is?

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

Mm-Hmm, . Well, I, I know Danielle was, uh, that was one of her preps, so I'm gonna be gonna pass that one over, that one over to Danielle.'cause you know, we, we all know how she feels about this. So

Danielle Levitt, Tandet:

thank you, Rick. The Fleet Safety Council is an association of safety professionals. Hello, everyone. My name is from all across the province, and we all work together to promote health and safety in the transportation industry. We have eight chapters across the province, and essentially, we are open to anyone who has an interest in transportation safety. The chapters meet regularly, and we share best practices, and we have a variety of guest speakers who present on topics that are relevant to our membership. As well, over 30 years ago, the Fleet Safety Council developed an annual educational conference. This conference is structured around a one day educational event, with lots of great information and takeaways that our members can bring back to their workplaces. The day before the conference is our annual networking day, which usually includes a fun event in the afternoon, such as bowling, and then followed by our networking reception, which takes place in the evening in our sponsor trade showroom at the conference facility.

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

One of the great things with the Fleet Safety Council, if I can just piggyback on Danielle's answer there, is it's the one spot in the industry that as much as we're all competitors, We walk through the door and we're there for a single purpose. It's, uh, you know, every, everybody is there. You freely share information, the best practices, as, uh, as Danielle said, the information, and it's a great spot to make those contacts so that when you're dealing with something that you haven't dealt with, you've got a list of people that you can go, okay, I know you dealt with this, what do I, what do I need to know? What, uh, how do I get out of this? And how, how messed am I if, uh, if I don't?

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

John, you want to add two cents in there? Well, I was going to say,

John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions:

uh, it's, it's, it's, it's probably the biggest bang for your buck when it comes down to it. Membership is very, very reasonable. I don't want to use the word cheap because it's not that, but like crying out loud. For an individual, it's 50 a year. Um, you attend 10 meetings throughout the year. You've got July and August off to take a breather and get excited for September. There's so much opportunity. And like, like Danielle and Rick both said, the networking opportunities, the, uh, information gathering you can get from these sessions, not just from the speakers, but from your, from your peers. Co members and whatnot. Like, you know, anybody that's up and coming in the ranks of safety management, risk management, wanting to learn more about how to be a better safety person. Um, or, you know, even, we've even had drivers attend with their safety managers just to do something different. And they walk away with going, holy crap, I didn't know that. Or, wow, that was interesting. You know, and what did it cost them? Nothing. You know, great information and you know, walk around, hand out business cards, get business cards from other people. Everybody is willing to

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

help. Well, and one of the greatest things that I, uh, that I always got out of it when I was on, when I was on the other side of the desk, uh, was, It was my point to recharge, especially the annual conference, because when we're, when we're in that safety role, we, we drain ourselves on a daily basis, trying to, trying to make it, make a difference. And we all feel that, that wall that you hit sometimes or, or, or that point, uh, you know, going and being in that room with the like minded individuals, whether it's a chapter meeting or at the annual conference. It always gave me that ability to get back up again tomorrow morning and go and do it again.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

Yeah, and I'll tell you the, the speakers that I've seen at the, at our meetings are second to none. And, you know, everything from MTO, I've seen OPP, Um, other safety consultants, Oh, accident reconstructionists, like you get access to a bunch of different information that you would never have had you not been a member.

John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions:

Well, I was going to say one of the coolest things is a lot of people think that some of the government agencies are out of touch. You know, you can't reach out to them. Fleet Safety Council. The various chapters have direct connections with the various ministries. Ministry of Labor,

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

ESDC,

John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions:

WSIB, MTO, Transport Canada, and these folks love to come and speak at these chapters, as well as the conference. So again, back to what was said. Education. It's just phenomenal. And you get to be front and center and then you can walk up to that person and go, you're real. Holy crap. You're real. Can I get your business card? Cause I need to, I need to talk to you later.

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

They love it.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

Hey, when there, so there's an annual conference. When is this year's annual conference? Is that they've been set?

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

Yes. This year, this year's conference, we're we're set for October. Uh, it's always the end of October, the 24th and 25th. Um, so all of the networking, uh, events that Danielle TA talked about, the bowling and the social rece reception, and that's actually where we're gonna be presenting, uh, are provincial driver and safety professional of the year awards. Um, we'll be at the Uhto October 24th, social events and then the 25th. Well, uh, we'll be our educational day where we've got a fantastic agenda that's, uh, that's been laid out.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

Okay. Well, what's this? You mentioned, you just skimmed right over awards. What the hell are we talking about? Danielle, can you answer? Or give some light on what the heck the awards are.

Danielle Levitt, Tandet:

Absolutely. So currently, each of the chapters across the province, um, offer a Driver of the Year and Safety Professional of the Year award. So, you know, any member of those chapters can nominate a driver or safety professional that they think has demonstrated the award criteria. And there is various award criteria. Um, and then the chapter executive team would vote for their specific chapter winner. That has been the program for a number of years and it has gotten lots of great engagement. However, this year, we've decided to, you know, level up that program. And create the Provincial Award, which is definitely what we're here to speak about today. This Provincial Award will encompass each individual winner from all of the chapters. So that's a driver of the year and a safety professional of the year from each of the 8 chapters. And then the Fleet Safety Council Joint Executive Committee. We'll review all of these nominees at our annual meeting in August and select the two provincial winners from each of those programs to be announced at our conference in October. That's

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

really cool.

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

Yeah. Right. Great recognition. Yeah. And, uh, you know, to again, uh, bounce off of that a little bit, you know, this wouldn't be possible with a, without the contributions of a truck, right. Has stepped up to Pon to sponsor this, uh, this event and in, in a big way. So, so we're gonna be taking and looking at. Each chapter's safety professional of the year, dry a drivery of the year that was looked at locally. Um, and then putting them. And so at the local level, they get recognition, they get a jacket, they get, they get a plaque, they get, they get a nice pat on the pat on the back in the, in that area. Um, so in wanting to elevate that for the provincial level. Um, Truckwright has stepped up to help us out and so the, the prize at the provincial level, um, our provincial winners will get a different jacket so they'll be differentiated and stand, stand out amongst the, amongst their peers and amongst the, amongst the crowd. Um, there'll be an elevated trophy that will, will go to them and there will be a cash reward of 2, 500. For the safety professional of the year and the driver of the, of the year. Received 2, 500. And, uh, and so that, like I said, that is, that is a huge pat on the back. Some, some fantastic recognition. Um, and, uh, you know, we're happy to have that partnership between the fleet safety council and truck, right. To be able to bring this, bring this forward and, and give this recognition to the, to those that deserve it. As

Danielle Levitt, Tandet:

mentioned, oh, sorry, Chris, I just wanted to piggyback on what Rick said that, you know, these provincial winners will be recognized at the networking event on the Thursday night preceding the conference. However, during the conference session, we do have a whole time slot dedicated to be able to recognize each of the chapter winners so that even though the provincial winner has had their separate recognition, each of the individual chapter winners will have the opportunity to be recognized and appreciated at the conference as well. Yeah, and that's

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

huge. I, I just wanted to give a shout out to TruckWrite. Dirk Kupar and his team, you know, you've mentioned their name a few times. They're great at stepping up when they see a worthwhile cause. And I think that this is certainly one of those causes. So, thanks to the TruckWrite team. What else do we need

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

to know? Well, it's, it's important to know. So, so as Danielle stated, it's open for any member of the, of a chapter to, so the, anybody that is a member in good standing. So to John's point earlier for an individual membership, 50 bucks. So if you're not a member and you've got, uh, got somebody you're like, Hey, this guy needs some, uh, some recognition. For 50 bucks you can become a member and you can, uh, you can then nominate your driver, your safety, safety professional to, to get them in the running for, for this award. Um, so those awards and those nominations need to be in by June. Okay, so, so, so it is very time sensitive. It's important that we get this information out. Um, you've got to get to your local, uh, local chapter. Um, you can also go onto the, uh, Facebook page. Fleet Safety Council website, and under the chapter page, you can go to your specific chapter and download the nomination forms. Um, it includes the contact information as to who to send those forms off to, um, so that way you can get your nominations in. For both the driver and safety professional, um, because those decisions at the chapter level need to be made in July so that at the joint meeting in August, the joint executive can do their voting as to who the provincial winner is going to be, and then that announcement will be made at the conference. So, uh, so as the, as the winner of the, of the local. Um, you will receive from, again, uh, thanks to Truckwright and their, and their assistants, um, each local winner will get an invite to the conference. Um, the cost of admission will be, will be paid by, uh, by that sponsorship from, uh, from Truckwright, um, winners will be responsible for their hotel and, uh, things like that. But, uh, entrance into the conference will be taken for them. So that way we can have everybody there. As we make that announcement as to who that provincial winner is going to be.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

I've got two questions and I don't know which one of our guests would like to tackle them. Maybe one for each. Um, why do we have eight chapters? And, um, how long typically is a chapter meeting? So people can get an idea.

Danielle Levitt, Tandet:

I will tackle the first question. Um, so why are there eight chapters? Well, let's get into a little bit of the history of the Fleet Safety Council. Just, just to bring you guys up to speed. The Fleet Safety Council actually formed back in 1964, where a small group of driver trainers met at a hotel in Toronto, and they wanted to discuss forming an organization that they felt would contribute to driver safety among commercial drivers. As a result of that initial meeting, the first formal meeting took place in January of 1965. With seven members in attendance. This is the group that would later develop into the Toronto chapter. And over the years, things grew, people wanted to get involved, and things changed, and the need for the regional chapters grew from there. And basically, that's how we got to where we are today, with eight chapters across the province.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

And the chapter locations range from Windsor, all the way, I want to say Ottawa, I think it's just outside of Ottawa, the actual location, and all the way to North Bay, if I remember.

Danielle Levitt, Tandet:

There's a chapter for everybody. Windsor, the London area, Cambridge, Central Ontario, Toronto, Hamilton, Eastern Ontario, and then, yes, way up to the north where I know Rick is our chapter chair.

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

Yeah, so I'm actually the chair for the Sudbury chapter. Um, so, so that cha chapter, just because of the geographical region, um, of Northern Ontario, um, that chapter doesn't meet monthly. Like the other chapter, we meet, we meet more on a quarter, quarterly basis. Um, however, during our meetings, we'll have two guest speakers, um, and make it, make it worth the trip to Sudbury for those that want to attend in person. Um, but obviously the North is quite vast. Um, I don't see somebody driving from, Thunder Bay need to Sudbury to come and do come and do a four hour meeting. Um, so we do in the north still have some virtual opportunities. Um, so all of our meetings are are done in a hybrid fashion Um, so that way that way those spread out through the north still have access to all of this information and the great speakers That we get to get in the area Um, and with, with that, uh, we've actually started to get some attendance from the East Coast of Canada, um, that have been attending our Northern, uh, Northern meetings as well. So definitely getting some good reach in what we're doing. Sweet. That's cool.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

The East Coast love, damn, I was looking for lobster on the weekend, but

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

we can get it to you virtually. Yeah, that's I get your picture one. It's

John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions:

all

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

right. So what was the date of the conference again?

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

So the conference is October 24th and 25th. So the educational day being the Friday, the 25th. And then the, uh, the day for, uh, the awards and networking events will be the 24th.

John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions:

And don't forget bowling, the social event, the highlight of the whole conference is the day before for the bowling.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

I, I might come just to see John bowl.

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

Well, John was our, our winner two years, two years ago. Years ago. Yep. I didn't get dethroned last year though. No,

John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions:

no, no, no. I, I, I decided not to, not to venture out to allow somebody else to win that prestigious event because I know how hard it is to achieve such a score in order to win the, uh, the prize that I did. So let's just leave it there and say that, you know what, maybe we'll be up for a challenge here this coming

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

season. That's right. I mixed things up as to who was the high and who was the low.

John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions:

We don't have to worry about mixing things up. We don't even have to worry about discussing it. I think we can just move on from here and let's just be there at the bowling event for the fun.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

Okay, so we've got the chapter dates and if you were nominating for the A driver or a safety person, when does a nomination have to be completed?

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

Um, as we said nominations, we want to have those in by, by June at the chapter level, so that way the chapters can make their, make their decisions and determinations as to who the local winner is, so that way they've got the people to put forward. for the provincial awards. As

Danielle Levitt, Tandet:

Rick had mentioned earlier, all of the nomination forms can be found on the chapter pages on the Fleet Safety Council website and these nomination forms include all of the award criteria as well. So if anybody has any questions about what we are looking for for these candidates or what the chapters are looking for for these candidates, those nomination forms have all the information you need.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

And I'll put a link to that in the show notes down below. So anybody can just click on it and, uh, find that chapter information. Because I, you know, I've been a member on and off. I can't say I've been a faithful member. It's tough being a consultant. Back when I was doing Mr. Brown's job, working for an insurance company, I was always a member. Um, I guess, geez, it was Toronto and Hamilton. I think I was a member of both and, um, or sorry, Toronto. Our good friend, Mr. Gladman was always in Hamilton. I didn't have to worry about that. But, uh, yeah, I was always a member. And then once I got off of my own, it's a little tougher to make the darn meetings. This is my problem, but I am a member currently of Hamilton. Hey, Mr. Derry, because he was always the leader there. I don't know if he still is. Damn. I got no idea.

John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions:

Anyways, Events coordinator in Hamilton. Michael's Michael's events

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

coordinator. I will see him shortly because later in this month, there's a big event for Hamilton.

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

Yes. Yes, there is. March 28th, we've got our sold out breakfast seminar in Hamilton. So unfortunately, those listening have missed out on that one. It's definitely going to be a good event, a holiday in Burlington. We've already pre scheduled for next year's Breakfast Seminar, which will be March 27th at the Holiday Inn in Burlington. Always a well attended event. Yeah. You know, going back to, going back to the awards. And if somebody's kind of on the fence and trying to figure out, you know, what, Why it's important to do this recognition or why it's important to have this, uh, this piece and why we're doing it. Um, both the safety professional and the end drivers, a lot of times they're thankless jobs. Yeah, you know, or at least feel that, at least feel that, feel that way. Yeah, you know, everybody, everybody appreciates the driver. Everybody appreciates the, the safety, the safety professional. They, uh, Uh, you know, so many of them go above and beyond, but they're jobs where a lot of times you're the islander. You know, the driver's out on his own doing his job, doing his thing. You know, countless expectations from operations, from dispatch, from safety, from wherever. And being on their own out there, they don't necessarily always get that great pat on the back or when they, when they do, sometimes it comes with that, that feeling of, okay, I'm getting the pat on the back. So what do they need? You know, what's, uh, what's, uh, what's the next question going to be? Uh, and so this is, you know, having this type of award for that driver definitely gives you the ability to show that recognition for the ones that are going above and beyond and that to deserve that recognition. And, uh, On the safety professional side of things, like I said, I remember being on the other side, side of the desk. I had to go to my monthly chapter meetings and my, and the annual conference to get that recharge. To get to, to be able to get up Monday morning and go back and, and continue to do it 'cause everybody. Operations, management, company owners definitely appreciate what a safety manager does, but they may not realize or understand what it takes to be that good safety manager. You get up every morning and you are constantly, for lack of better words, fighting. You know, you're fighting with the drivers to get them doing things properly and to understand compliance and to get things done properly. Then you're fighting for the drivers to make sure they've got the protections that they need and the things that they need. And then you're working with operations and management to get them on board and get things done. And you're consistently feeling like you're having that uphill battle. And, uh, and so for when you've got a good safety guy, when you've got somebody that's coming in and you can see they're doing that day in and day out, you've got to stop and recharge them. You've got, you've got to give them this recognition, give them the, give them the pat on the back so that they can keep going and doing this. For the protection of your company, for the protection of your drivers, to find that 50 yard line of being profitable and being safe. Well

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

said. I think, you know, I've got a question for both of you. Rick, I know you are a former safety manager, and Danielle, you still got the role today. Why is it when we say to a driver, hey driver, go see safety, the reaction is always Oh shit, what did I do now?

John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions:

Arrrrgh!

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

Stressing me out right

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

away. My question is, because that is often the reaction, um, how can we change that? Do you have any suggestions? Because that's one of my pet peeves.

Danielle Levitt, Tandet:

I think that having that relationship with the driver from the very beginning, you know, engaging and communicating and, you know, explaining and really getting that buy in from the very first connection with the driver through the onboarding process to show that We're there as their team, as their support, um, as their backup, should they need it, if they ever have any questions, that's always how I've approached it, so that they, although they know I mean business, I'm a friend, like I'm on their team, and we're working together towards the same goal, and I think that that can go a long way to show them that we're not a team. Here to be against them. It's not like they've never heard from me before and all of a sudden They're getting a phone call from Danielle saying I need to speak with you. Please come into the office They already know we already have that existing relationship and they really feel supported by their safety team

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

And I think I think part of it as well is The way you structure things within your organization You know, because, because often safety becomes that catch all. If nobody else does it, safety does it. And that includes, you know, following up with the drivers, following up with the, taking care of correcting driver behavior, doing all of those, those things. And so often, safety gets lumped with that disciplinary side. You know, so if you, if you've got that ability within your organization, you've got to separate that discipline and that safety. You know, we've, we've got to discipline you because there's a legal obligation under, under the Canada Labour Code or employment standards if you're provincially regulated to discipline. It's a legal obligation. We have to do that. But we don't want to do it again, so that's why we have safety, and that's what they're there to do, is to make sure we don't have to do that again by giving you the correct information, by giving you the training, and being that person that, you know, helps you not have to commit whatever that issue was. And also take the operational stuff out of safety. If operations has got, uh, got an issue with a driver, operations should deal with the issue with the driver along with HR or however, however it is. It shouldn't be safety's job to follow up with that.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

That's awesome. I think, um, the last word kind of. Fleet Safety Conference. Rick is what dates?

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

The October 24th and 25th.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

And Danielle, all submissions for Driver of the Year and Safety Person of the Year have to be in by?

Danielle Levitt, Tandet:

Have to be in to their local chapters by June the 30th.

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1:

Awesome. Guys, Danielle from Tandit, Rick from Northbridge, thanks so much for coming on the Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast.

John Farquhar, Summit Risk Solutions:

Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it. Both of

Rick Brown, Northbridge Ins:

you.

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Chris Harris

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John Farquhar

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