Safety First – Know the Risk!

Safety Message for the month by Paul Gardiner, Manager; Health, Safety & Environment- Pacific Fuel Haul Ltd

Risk-based thinking is important and I encourage everyone to bring this to the front of their minds. The reason being that everyone tends to go about their daily activities in a sort of automatic, and sometimes, subconscious way because we do the same task day in and day out.

We tend to get somewhat complacent about what we do and the goods that we carry, handle, load and deliver. We also tend to overlook that the goods we carry are very dangerous if not managed or handled correctly. This is why what we do on a daily basis has systems and controls in place to safely manage them and it is important that everyone adheres to these.

Stop, Look and Assess your work area. Ask yourself the key questions - “What could go wrong, what could I do to prevent it from going wrong and (most importantly) is it safe to continue?”

The reality is that no situation is ever the same as it was yesterday. There’s almost always going to be new external factors that need to be considered while handling these goods. For example the weather, the public, and your work environment which could have debris lying around or insufficient lighting due to a bulb failure, or foliage.

Much like our daily activities, thinking about the risk is something we do automatically and subconsciously however sometimes we don’t act on what we have identified. Risk is often thought of in a negative sense. But by using a risk-based thinking approach it helps us identify and manage risk. A risk-based thinking approach also provides PFH & our clients with improvement opportunities and I personally see that as a positive.

Identifying a risk and acting on what has been identified is considered to be a preventative action and this is why near miss reporting is so valuable. Acting on an unsafe situation is a proactive approach rather than reactive when something goes wrong. Risk-based thinking is important and again, I encourage everyone to bring this to the front of their minds.

Remember, our goal is Zero Harm – Home Safe Everyday!