Manitoba Trucking Association

Safety is for everyone.Ensuring a high degree of industrial safety not only helps a business enterprise to reduce its operating expenses, but safety is a process that benefits everyone. Carriers, receivers, shippers, the public, and workers alike all reap the benefits of safer business operations.

 People who work in trucking often think about safety in the context of road safety and freight claims. Ensuring adherence and excellence in road safety is nothing but a good thing; however, this focus should not come at the expense of a business’s obligations to occupational safety.

It’s all well and good to keep trucks, trailers, and cargo safe, but if the drivers who operate those trucks or the service technicians who keep them operational are unsafe, all that work gone into road safety is for nothing. After all, trucks do not drive our industry forward; people do. Employers that ensure their workers are kept safe are employers who are actively preventing disruptions to their business. In addition to protecting people’s well-being, implementing a robust occupational safety program is an investment in the well-being of the business itself. By protecting their business from higher operating expenses, nuclear court verdicts, and even jail time for safety-related negligence, carriers have the opportunity to avoid the serious pitfalls associated with a safety program that is lacking or absent.

Last year, occupational safety in trucking made great strides. The trucking industry in Manitoba saw 12,356 fewer days lost in 2021 than it did in 2020, an enormous feat. If we were to use all those days lost to travel back in time, we would arrive close to when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. It’s the equivalent of 33 years’ worth of labour time saved in only a single year.

A major factor in this shift was the substantial decline in days lost from slips and falls, which are the primary cause of time loss in the trucking industry. By helping to slash the number of days lost due to slips and falls by over a third, RPM has helped Manitoba drivers stay on the road and continue to do the work which is so vital to the economy of our province. This decline in days lost has coincided with a larger reduction in the number of WCB claims since RPM began awarding companies with the Trucking Certificate of Recognition in 2017. From then to 2021, the number of time-loss WCB claims in trucking has decreased by 17%, along with a 20% reduction in severe, musculoskeletal, and non-time-loss claims.

However, SAFE Work Certification and RPM have done more for trucking than just reducing WCB claims. Working with our advisors, SAFE Work Certified companies save an estimated total of $750,000 per year in WCB premium rebates. On top of that, certified companies save even more money through lower WCB premiums, reducing them by as much as 61%.

There are also some statistics that, unfortunately, we don’t have access to but are well worth mentioning. The WCB does not record the number of near-misses workers’ experience on the job each year. This is a missed opportunity as studying near-misses is incredibly important when it comes to preventing workplace injuries. One should also keep in mind that companies engaging in claims suppression also skew how many injuries are reported
to the WCB.

It also needs to be remembered that occupational injuries, illnesses, and death result in tremendous personal loss. For every worker affected by these incidents, there are spouses, children, friends, and dependants that are also affected. The impacts of occupational injury affect more than just the injured; the shockwave extends to entire communities.

As we said at the start, safety is for everyone. A recognition of this fact is the first step from changing the culture of an organization from one that begrudges compliance to a business reaping the rewards that a robust safety program can bring. Whether it be fewer days lost due to injury, fewer cargo damage claims, or simply better personal well-being, an investment in safety results in net positives for all.