SafeRack Employee Safety

We’re All About Safety

From full solutions to in-house committees, SafeRack inspires safer workplaces

Whether you’re looking at Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Laws and Regulations or applying American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Safety Standards, your business goal should always be to provide a safe working environment. This applies to your employees, people on your worksite, and also your customers.

At SafeRack, each of our solutions helps our customers meet and exceed safety standards. We manufacture loading platforms for vehicles ranging from a single truck to trains with more than 100 rail cars. We also build safety-focused gangways, ramps, metal stairs, rolling platforms, safety gates for guardrails, traffic control systems, spill containment, and more.

We hold our product lines to the same safety standards we do in our own facility. We don’t settle on just any product to get out the door. With the word safe built right into our name, we focus on solutions that are safer and more productive than ever.

Products Specially Designed for Each Safety Challenge

Accessing the top of a tank truck poses many challenges, including safety. But with our rolling platforms, access is made easy. They’re not only stable, but also counterbalanced so that the safety cage never needs to physically touch the top of the vehicle. Tough and resilient, these platforms can handle almost any reasonably flat terrain with their five-ply, solid tires, equipped with built-in levelers.

How about the actual loading of a product? Are you loading and unloading in environments subject to weather extremes? You definitely want to avoid rain and snow inside your tanks or rail or transport trucks — and our loading sheds can help. We also offer permanent structural canopies for trucks or rail cars. Every bit can — and should! — be equipped with non-slip stairs, track-mounted gangways, and safety cages.

SIDEBAR: Rolling Platform Features:

  • 42-inch high safety cage railing to conform to safety standards
  • Load-tested for up to 500 pounds (even though only one user is typically required)
  • Need to go higher?
  • Platforms are available in two sizes, extendable from 10 to 14 feet, or from 12 to 16 feet
  • 5-ply, solid, no-flat tires, with built-in levelers
  • Optional power unit which moves at walking speed

Hiring for the Long Term

At SafeRack, our focus on safety in-house begins with hiring. We seek out skilled, knowledgeable workers whose values align with our own. We also look for workers right here in South Carolina to keep things local. We identify those that have the proper background for the work and have strong signs of being methodical, focused, and responsible — key elements in those willing to learn and expand their horizons.

Our 400+ years of combined experience have taught us a lot, but a big lesson is that everybody learns differently. This said we make a point to train workers continuously. Of course, new people need to be brought up to speed so they can safely function in our environment, but veteran employees also benefit from refresher training.

Every department is represented in our SafeRack Safety Committee. Chosen by team leader nomination, this committee meets monthly to discuss any recent incidents, first aid training, missed opportunities, and the like. What’s important here is that every department and every shift is represented. It’s a good regular safety audit, and oftentimes updates emerge, which are then implemented.

To boost enthusiasm for the program, we’ve created elements to engage employees’ competitive spirit to see who can be “best” in safety. Offering employees a paid day or two to learn First Aid or CPR benefits everybody in the company. The added benefit is that this unaggressive, low-level rivalry keeps safety foremost in the employees’ minds. If suggestions about an improved method or process are taken and applied, more people will contribute to the collective discussion of safety.

Safety Means Continuous Improvement

Ultimately, implementing safety in the workplace will not be completed in one step. It also won’t come by creating a massive rulebook that everybody is expected to memorize. Becoming safer comes through a series of small, thoughtful actions with regard to the consequences. It’s a consideration of how your actions will affect every person in and around the workplace.

By making safety a regular, everyday part of your corporate culture, implementation becomes an automatic process. Whether it’s incorporating it into everyday checklists or teambuilding activities, you must work safety into the collective consciousness and accountability — not simply prescribe people to “be safer.”

A parting tip: Make sure every new and existing employee knows that questions about safety protocols are welcomed.  Even if it’s something that should be obvious, it’s important to get across that no one will get in trouble for getting clarification. With this, you’ll be well on your way to having a staff that will not only keep themselves safe but will watch out for others.