{"id":2915,"date":"2024-12-30T15:18:04","date_gmt":"2024-12-30T15:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prairieprod.vcnastaging.com\/?p=2915"},"modified":"2024-12-30T15:18:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-30T15:18:04","slug":"safety-in-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/safety-in-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Safety In Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cSafety keeps us all in business, keeps us competitive and keeps our whole workforce intact,\u201d says\u00a0<strong>John Zelasco,\u00a0<\/strong>safety director for\u00a0<strong>FCL Builders\u00a0<\/strong>in Itasca, Illinois. \u201cWhen everyone gets on and off the job and goes home safe at night, that\u2019s a great day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We couldn\u2019t agree more. Prairie has just completed its 15th straight month with no lost time incidents &#8212; more than 1.5 million man-hours of safe operation covering 1,000 employees in 3 states. In partnership with FCL and all our customers across the region, we\u2019re aiming for zero incidents throughout 2013.<\/p>\n<h2>From our yards to your job sites: a 360-degree pledge\u200b<\/h2>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2917 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/12\/safety1-264x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"264\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/12\/safety1-264x300.jpg 264w, https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/12\/safety1-11x12.jpg 11w, https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/12\/safety1.jpg 286w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 264px) 100vw, 264px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As construction schedules get tighter and work teams grow leaner, safety efforts must intensify to keep pace, says Prairie President\u00a0<strong>Richard Olsen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe follow a 360-degree approach that focuses on keeping employees, customers, vendors and the public safe,\u201d he explains. \u201cMore and more, that approach begins with our construction partners, who bring us their own unique safety requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>FCL is a prime example. The company requires subcontractors and suppliers to attend jobsite-specific orientations before each project begins, Zelasco says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe view our subs as experts in what they do,\u201d he says. \u201cOn jobs like the million-square-foot distribution centers we\u2019ve built in the last few years, we have 50 to 100 loads of concrete coming on site throughout the day. We see Prairie\u2019s drivers as a crucial piece of our jobsite safety and we look to complement their own safety program.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Mentors, courses keep our drivers sharp<\/h2>\n<p>Our 600-plus drivers who deliver to job sites throughout Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin are among the best in the business, with skills that send a Prairie representative to NRMCA\u2019s national truck rodeo competition almost every year. Constant refreshing of drivers\u2019 skills is the key to top performance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe identify senior drivers every season to act as mentors, riding along with other drivers in all regions to observe and share tips for improvement,\u201d says\u00a0<strong>Dave Mashek<\/strong>, Prairie\u2019s human resources chief. This year, every driver will also complete a 4-hour defensive driving class created by the National Safety Council, he reports.<\/p>\n<h2>Everyone\u2019s at the table<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2918 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/12\/safety3-233x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"233\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/12\/safety3-233x300.jpg 233w, https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/12\/safety3-9x12.jpg 9w, https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/12\/safety3.jpg 242w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At Prairie\u2019s annual joint committee on health and safety meeting held earlier this year, 50 team members from every area of the company met to outline plans for an incident-free 2013.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving people from operations, customer service and human resources in the same room with drivers, cartage and plant operators, high-lift operators and mechanics gave us the full view,\u201d Mashek says. \u201cWe discussed events and patterns we\u2019d seen over the past year and defined ways to prevent injuries, especially during the peak season ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Employee feedback on suggested safety measures is critical, Mashek points out, \u201cbecause they\u2019re the experts. We rely on them to help us fine-tune safety procedures, report hazards and come up with ideas to make every work day safer.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2>The safety \u201crock stars\u201d of Prairie: Our Aggregates Team<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2919 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/12\/agg4-276x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"276\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/12\/agg4-276x300.jpg 276w, https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/12\/agg4-11x12.jpg 11w, https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/12\/agg4.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 276px) 100vw, 276px\" \/>More than 80 Prairie team members run our 11 quarries and aggregate yards in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. With an amazing 5 \u00bd years with zero lost-time incidents, this crew has a safety record nearly 3 times better than the industry average, reports Annick Maenhout, health, safety and environmental manager for our aggregate operations. \u201cEvery single employee has contributed to this result by being aware of hazards, taking part in safety self-audits, and paying attention to doing the right things right,\u201d Maenhout says. \u201cWe\u2019re coming close to a million man-hours with no lost time accidents.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cSafety keeps us all in business, keeps us competitive and keeps our whole workforce intact,\u201d says\u00a0John Zelasco,\u00a0safety director for\u00a0FCL Builders\u00a0in Itasca, Illinois. \u201cWhen everyone gets on and off the job and goes home safe at night, that\u2019s a great day.\u201d We couldn\u2019t agree more. Prairie has just completed its 15th straight month with no lost [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prairie.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}