In this episode of Freight Nation: A Trucking Podcast, host Brent Hutto is joined by Sam Watts, Owner of Wattsmen Diesel House and Safety Supervisor for Meiborg Brothers.

The person in charge of safety procedures is rarely the most popular, but Sam is one of the industry leaders in sharing and educating others in the most important aspects of safety protocols in freight. He is the brains behind Wattsmen Diesel House, a website created for the purpose of educating and entertaining the industry. He also acts as Safety Supervisor at Meiborg Brothers, operating in Rockford, Illinois.

[15:36] Before you start building out your safety program, Sam recommends being brutally honest with yourself about where you are currently sitting with everything. You need to learn exactly what you need to be following safety guidelines, and then bring yourself up to meet and exceed that. If you ignore the problem, it won’t go away, and frankly could cost you a lot of money. Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know or you don’t have something, that’s the only way a safety expert can help you. You wouldn’t lie to your doctor about your pain level, so don’t lie to your safety officer about your compliance. Once you’ve brought everything up to where it needs to be, then you can focus on maintaining your standards. 

[21:58] To be on top of safety, you need to be aware of the Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) uses to determine how you are ranking compared to others in safety. Ignorance is not an excuse for being unsafe, so this is imperative. You need to know the seven BASICs that a safety department is built off of: unsafe driving, crash indicator, hours-of-service compliance, vehicle maintenance, controlled substances, hazardous materials compliance, and driver fitness. Each of these has over 100 violations that the FMCSA could pull you up on and so you need to make sure you’re on top of them all.

[28:39] Safety is not worth ignoring. While it may not make you any money, and it may not be ‘cool’, it will cost you a lot of money if you ignore it. That’s what Sam says to brokers to get them to listen. Neglecting safety will come back to bite you, there are no ifs and buts. While the most common effects are tow-charges and late deliveries, if your safety score drops too low in an audit, you could lose your insurance and even your whole company. It;s not worth the risk.

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