Keep Trucking Safe May 2020 Newsletter

Washington State Department of Labor & Industries sent this bulletin at 05/22/2020 06:23 AM PDT

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Safety Material for the Trucking Industry
May 2020

May is Global Employee Health & Fitness Month

Global Employee Health & Fitness Month is a worldwide observance to promote health and fitness in the workplace. Practicing a healthy lifestyle that includes a nutritious diet and physical exercise is key to avoiding injury and illness and being a dynamic, high-performing worker. For truck drivers, health and fitness are vital to safely operating a vehicle and performing other related job tasks. Healthy and fit drivers benefit business operations because they feel physically better, have higher mental alertness, and comply with CDL medical requirements.

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Keeping Safe from COVID-19

Millions of workers are staying home as part of the social distancing strategy to stop COVID-19. But many truck drivers are working to help meet the nation’s essential needs during this trying time. This means truck drivers should take extra care to protect their health. While many places have adopted disease prevention measures, drivers may still find it hard to fully avoid social interactions or touching potentially contaminated surfaces while loading, making deliveries, using the restroom, and stopping for food and fuel. Risk is especially higher for older drivers and those having pre-existing health conditions like diabetes and lung disease. There currently are no vaccines for coronavirus and no one is immune. Symptoms appear 2-14 days after exposure and include fever, cough, and difficulty breathing. Use the following tips and use them to design a sickness prevention and response strategy for your company safety program.

Tips to live by

Guard Your Yard

Terminal yards are busy places where truck drivers, freight handlers, and mechanics prepare trucks, trailers, and freight for the road. The nonstop whirl of employees, vehicle traffic, and loading operations can quickly raise injury risks if workplace hazards are left ignored. Terminal yard hazards include the risks of being struck and crushed, getting muscle sprains and strains, and having a slip, trip, or fall. The surest way to prevent injuries is to have a company safety program that takes active steps to identify, assess, eliminate, and control hazards. The following tips can help keep your terminal yard safe.

Image of a damaged concrete yard with the title tip sheet.

Tips to live by

EDUCATION & TRAINING

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Conduct an Injury Investigation

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Root cause analysis is a process for finding the what, how, and why something happened to prevent it from happening again in the future.

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What Is Safety Climate?

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Safety climate is the new catch phrase in occupational safety circles. But what is it? And what does it mean to your company? Find out in this training:

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MOST COMMON INJURIES

Slips, trips, falls

Strain & sprains (musculoskeletal disorders)

Getting struck by or against an object

The Trucking Injury Reduction Emphasis (TIRES) project was developed by the Safety and Health Assessment and Research for Prevention (SHARP) program of Washington's Department of Labor & Industries.

The Trucking Injury Reduction Emphasis (TIRES) project team and the TIRES steering committee are working with the Washington State trucking industry to identify causes for the most frequent injuries to develop effective strategies for preventing them. Free safety training materials are available at KeepTruckingSafe.org.

The TIRES steering committee is made up of a diverse group of professionals that includes: drivers, safety people from large and small trucking companies, labor and business associations, insurers and a representative from a publicly funded truck driving school.

Funded in part by a grant from CDC NIOSH 5 U60 OH 008487. The contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of CDC/NIOSH.

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