Click here for an entry form for the 2008 NRMCA Safety Contest. The deadline is May 31.

The Safety Contest has for years been a safety performance and incentive/award program aimed to foster safe practices at ready mixed concrete plants across the nation. Prior to 1993, NRMCA annually sponsored a safety contest that gathered industry accident data and recognized member companies that had commendable safety records. The original contest was based on company-wide production criteria making it difficult for large, multi-plant ready mixed producers with an outstanding safety record to be recognized. The Safety Task Group of NRMCA’s Operations, Environment and Safety Committee redesigned the contest in 1996, to its current form. Over the past few years the program has grown to become NRMCA’s most popular award recognition program. The program is designed to be simple, while providing meaningful and fair criteria to recognize individual plants for their commitment to safety as evidenced by their record. The secondary goal of the contest is to gather thorough, accurate industry accident statistics. The data are analyzed and used to establish industry benchmarks for safe operations. Concrete Producer magazine cosponsors the NRMCA Safety Contest.

The Safety Contest is a per-plant contest open to all facilities operated by NRMCA member companies in good standing. Companies with more than one division were encouraged to distribute entry blanks to individuals responsible for keeping safety records at each plant location.

Confidentiality
The data submitted are kept strictly confidential by the NRMCA. After verification of all data entry and calculations, NRMCA destroys the entry forms and specific company information.

Categories
In order to promote fairness within the contest, plants are divided into three categories. Each category is based on the number of ready mixed concrete trucks that are stationed at each plant. In today’s industry, unlike just a few years ago, it is very common, if not the norm, to have trucks that service two, three and even more plants. In these cases the producers are instructed to estimate the percentage of their fleet that could be theoretically assigned to a particular plant or, if the number of trucks fluctuated significantly, the average number is used. The three categories are as follows:

• Category A ….. up to 9 trucks
• Category B ….. 10 – 19 trucks
• Category C …...20 or more trucks

Basis for Winning Entries
The following information was solicited on the entry form for:

• Total Number of Cubic Yards Shipped from that plant. This value was used to “level the playing field,” assuming that more yardage shipped produced a greater opportunity for accidents.

• Number of Lost Time Accidents at each Plant (LTA). This includes all accidents that caused one or more employees to miss a complete shift of duty.

• Number of Mixer Truck Accidents (MTA) resulting in damages over $5000. These were mixer truck accidents only where the mixer driver was at fault.

• Number of fatalities (F) that occurred in accidents that the company employees were at fault was submitted.

A certificate of “Excellence in Safety” is awarded to individual plants that are above the 70th percentile in scoring within each of the three categories in the contest. In addition, an “Excellence in Safety” certificate is awarded to all plants with no recorded accidents during the previous calendar year.

For more information, contact David Ayers at 1-888-846-7622, ext. 1155.