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— to hold conversations to determine if that driver
just needs a coaching event or if they need further
training,” Pitzel said, adding that for counseling to be
effective, it can’t always be negative.
“A driver doesn’t get up in the morning and say
they’re going to have a bad day or have an accident,”
he said. “When they have an issue, you’ve got
to get down to the root cause. Once they correct it,
it’s just as important to communicate with them and
thank them for their efforts, rather than to just beat
them with a stick. You’ve got to have some positive
reinforcement.”
Another aspect of Bison’s overall safety program
that’s paying off is the systematic manner in which behaviors
are addressed to improve performance. Pitzel
cited a recent example in which the company sought
to cut down incidents involving adverse weather conditions,
leveraging drivers to be on the front line of
improvement.
“Our results were not good two winters ago. We
identified a combination of factors that contributed
to every accident — light load, high winds, and overdriving
the conditions,” he said. “We stressed that,
and we challenged our drivers to help be part of the
solution. The result was 46% fewer accidents last
winter than the year before. Our drivers absolutely responded,
and I got out and thanked them for it.”
Pitzel is quick to point out that the new approach
doesn’t come at the expense of the drivers’ accountability
and adherence to rules. But he’s equally emphatic
about the company’s ability to see different
ways to deliver messages and drive for collaborative
improvement in a manner employees hear and
understand.
“This whole thing is like a puzzle, and the puzzle
is cut in a different way for every driver. Our job as
a company is to put it together,” he said. “We strive
toward continual improvement.
“Our major accidents, since 2020, have reduced by
27%,” he continued. “We have a safe driving award
program that’s paid out $50 million to our drivers
since 2005. Last year, January to October, we did almost
3,900 classroom courses and just under 12,000
online courses for our drivers. And for the first nine
months of last year, we had 14,092 coaching conversations
through our safety counselors — 3,752 being
proactive conversations, not reactive.”
All the time, money, and expertise that represents
is a small price to pay for bringing everyone home to
their loved ones safely, which is the constant, overriding
goal, according to Pitzel.
“I do a quarterly board report, and the first question
I have to answer is, ‘Did everybody make it home? Yes
or no?’ That’s what drives safety as part of the culture
we have here,” he said. “The worst thing I have to do
is phone somebody’s family and say they aren’t coming
home. That’s the only thing on my job description
that I’d be happy to get away with not doing.”
TCA SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 www.Truckload.org | Truckload Authority 35