The Fleet Safety Council is an association of driver trainers and safety professionals working to promote safety within the transportation, transport, bus, and coach industries.
The Council encourages the improvement of driver behavior through increased awareness and training. Working with Government agencies and private organizations, the Council strives for a uniform system of safety requirements for drivers in Ontario.
For more info, view the Fleet Safety Council brochure.
Membership
The Fleet Safety Council is open to all individuals concerned with promoting safety within the transportation industry. Over 660 members form several chapters in Ontario.
Current members include:
- Driver Trainers
- Directors of Safety
- Labour Safety Personnel
- Individuals concerned with occupational health and safety
- Insurance Companies
- Government Agencies
Members must be employed in the motor vehicle transportation industry as a safety supervisor, driver trainer, driver supervisor or associated with any government sponsored agency including insurance companies.
Chapters have representation from local, regional and OPP police forces as well as from the Ministry of Transportation, and other federal and provincial agencies.
If you want more input into the way safety is handled within the transportation industry, join us on the Fleet Safety Council. To register as an active member in the Council, download the application form.
Meetings
Chapter meetings are held monthly from September to June. Members have the opportunity to learn more about safety within the transportation industry by sharing ideas and information with other companies and individuals.
Meeting Schedule (All Chapters)
Members can access the minutes of the meetings online with a username and password.
An updated copy of the constitution is also available online to members with a username and password.
Handout material from previous conferences
Speaker presentations from 2010 Conference
- Leveraging Your Employee Assistance Program (Lisa Bull)
- The Markel High Risk Driver Program (Rick Geller)
- Building Your Reputation Bank Account (Tricia Hellingman)
- Accidents: An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure (Carole McAfee Wallace)
Presentation materials from 2009 Conference
Seven Pillars Supporting the Bridge to Safety
(Click on headings to access presentations)
1. Policies, practices and procedures
Management cannot be everywhere; therefore the creation of written policies, practices and procedures to deal with any hazardous activity in the workplace is paramount. Central to employers meeting their obligations to employees is the provision of the information in the workplace which allows employees to conduct their activities in a safe way.
This session covers the following key elements:
- provides a method to review the activities carried on in their workplace and identify those which are hazardous
- provides a guideline for the development of procedures for the safe performance of hazardous activities
- provides a guiding principle for: keeping procedures, policies and practices up-to-date; making changes and communicating them to employees; and incorporating a mechanism for ongoing reinforcement of these policies and procedures, and
- provides a process to determine the degree of detail a procedure should have relevant to the risk and the complexity of the task involved. (e.g., High risk, complex tasks will require very detailed procedures, while low risk, simple tasks will require much less detailed procedures.)
2. Monitoring to ensure effectiveness of policies and procedures
Once employers have developed the appropriate policies, practices and procedures they must ensure that they are actually followed in the workplace. This involves several elements.
This session covers the following key elements:
- Successful and progressive strategies for the routine monitoring in the workplace to ensure that policies, practices and procedures are being complied with.
- The appropriate and practical use of the employer’s authority to ensure that in fact employees are complying with the policies, practices and procedures. This may include the use of discipline where necessary in order to ensure compliance.
3. Communication of hazard information
Because the workplace is not static, management is expected to be vigilant and constantly communicating to employees about hazards as they develop. The existence of policies, practices and procedures does not excuse supervisors or managers from communicating to employees about the changing conditions of the workplace environment which may present a hazard to them.
This session covers the following key elements:
- practical approach of instructing employees about the existence of and requirements of the policies, practices and procedures
- effective techniques to making sure that an employee who has never done a particular task before understands and appreciates the hazards of the task, and
- useful way(s) of properly communicating to employees changes to workplace conditions or equipment.
4. Auditing and other means of hazard identification
Management must look at the workplace in a detached way and attempt to foresee where safety hazards may exist. Management is expected to look at the workplace in some depth to identify hazardous conditions. Both management and employees constantly run the risk of not recognizing hazards because they are so familiar.
This session explores ways to being able to actually "see" the hazards in the workplace, including but not limited to: being constantly alert for hazards that have become familiar and making the mental effort to "step back" and attempt to view the workplace through fresh eyes; inviting management and supervisors from one area of a plant to do reviews or inspections of other areas of a plant; and using outside professionals to perform audits on the employer’s premises for a fresh view of the workplace and the hazards which may exist within it.
5. Training
Employers have an obligation to properly train supervisors and employees. An employer is not meeting their obligations if it is allowing employees to perform work on equipment for which the employee has not received adequate training. Training of both employees and supervisors is an essential element in the workplace.
This session explores advancements made in the area of training and development. The participants are provided with state of the art training methodologies and techniques which can be incorporated and utilized by them in their respective workplaces.
6. Incident investigation and reporting
The investigation of incidents and injuries in the workplace should be seen as source of information for improving policies, practices and procedures. Encouraging employees to report near misses and providing for the investigation of near misses will enhance employers’ positions in this regard.
This session looks at ways to conduct effective investigations, pitfalls that an investigator can get into that will detract from a proper process. In addition, the session provides participants with practical methods and procedures which can be used by them in their respective workplace in order to determine and correct the root cause and prevent further injury.
7. Documentation
Documentation – The Key to Due Diligence
Management should ensure that training activities, safety audits, discipline and health and safety meetings are all documented and the documentation is retained. Without proper documentation, it becomes much more difficult for the employer to prove the extent of their efforts.
This session covers the following key elements:
- provides a guideline for developing a documentation system
- provides a guiding principle for keeping records up-to-date, and
- provides a process to determine the degree of detail records should contain, as well as suggested retention.