safety

Shop Talk: Safety Goes Beyond A Department

By Brooke Beall

 

At Jetco, safety is everyone’s responsibility not just the drivers and the safety department. Our state-of-the-art shop plays a large part in our safety culture. They are responsible for making sure that services and repairs to all trucks and trailers are done in a timely manner so we can keep your freight moving safely and without foreseen delays.

Outside of truck maintenance our shop also perform gate checks daily to help ensure our equipment is compliant with DOT standards. This allows for another set of eyes on the trucking before they get on the road. In addition to the standard DOT requirements the Maintenance Director, Jay Rincker, put in place a brake and tire measuring system where they record the tire pressure and brake thickness. This allows them to have a better handle on how certain trucks are wearing down and what they can expect moving forward, helping plan for the unexpected.

We had a little shop talk with Jay to get the inside scoop on his favorite parts of the job along with why safety goes beyond just one department. Check out what he shared with us below.

What critical role does the shop play in living and breathing our safety culture?
The shop plays a major part in our safety culture as we are the professionals that ensure that the truck/trailers are safe to operate. Our goal is to take care of an issue while it is still small before it becomes a major one to maintain the safety of our drivers and the general public.

How does the shop help ensure the safety of our trucks, drivers and traveling public?
The shop does gate checks and our foremen inspect the truck/trailer before it is put back in service as a second set of eyes ensuring we have corrected the issue and that there are no other issues that might not have been know at the time the truck/trailer was brought in to the shop for repairs.

List common issues your team sees and fixes as well as preventative maintenance your team performs that contribute to ensuring safety.
The most common issues that we find awhile preforming our duties are lights that aren’t working, brakes that need to be replaced or adjusted, tires that are getting low on tread.

Explain what could happen if your team wasn’t on top of their jobs.
If our maintenance team is not on top of their job, we could have unsafe truck/trailers on the road with poor braking, poor steering and/or poor traction from tires. If any of these issues are happening, we could have an preventable accident which goes against of “Driving to Perfection” culture.

What’s your favorite part of the job?
My favorite part of my job is working with the different groups (Drivers, Dispatch, Safety and Compliance) to help make sure that we are operating in as safe a manner as possible.

If you would like to learn more on how Jetco and our shop go the extra mile to ensure the safety of your freight, our drivers and the general public please call us at 713.676.1111.

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