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How prepared is your company to bid on a job that includes excavation around natural gas pipelines or another potentially hazardous area? At Aspen Environmental Companies, LLC in Glenwood, New Jersey, Ron Muller believes that his company’s morning “tailboard” (tailgate) safety meetings weren’t quite detailed enough to prepare for this type of situation.

“We contacted a New Jersey-based electric and gas utility company and asked them to provide us with an ‘after-hours’ training,” Muller says. “Fourteen employees attended this mandatory training and were paid for their time.”

The gas company trained the Aspen employees how to identify gas pipelines and excavate around gas lines, and what to do in a gas emergency. As a result of the training, “we felt extremely confident to bid on an extensive pavers job that involved a natural gas pipeline,” Muller says.

Additional Benefits

Aspen Environmental Companies, which is a member of PLANET’s STARS (Safety Training Achieves Remarkable Success) Safe Company Program, believed that the gas pipeline training would be beneficial “in any excavation situation or lawn maintenance site that we might encounter,” Muller says.

“This particular training led to an immediate open group discussion, and our employees stated that they felt confident about what to do if they ever encountered a natural gas incident,” he notes. “Our safety committee was especially pleased with the positive outcome.”

The employees who were trained are part of what the company calls “TEAM Aspen.” TEAM stands for “Together Everyone Achieves More. “ All company employees are now part of this “TEAM.”

As a result of the initial after-hours training, Aspen Environmental Companies decided that additional after-hours training sessions on other topics would also be beneficial. One recent topic was fire safety. “Something as simple as teaching each employee to actually use the fire extinguisher was very effective,” Muller says.

More Training Ideas

Is after-hours training a good idea for everyone? It can be, especially if training time is limited during your employees’ busy days. After-hours training provides the opportunity to teach topics more in-depth than you would during a 5- to 15-minute tailgate (or tailboard) safety training session. It is not a substitute, however, for regular tailgate meetings, or for orientation training for new employees.

Here are just a few of the many other ideas to consider for after-hours training:

• Emergency response (see if local emergency medical technicians or staff at a local hospital or clinic would assist you with this training)
• Heat stress and sun protection (in greater detail than you would have time to discuss during a brief tailgate meeting)
• Work-zone safety (especially if your employees work extensively around busy highways)

“Our health and safety trainings – the morning tailboard meetings and after-hour trainings – are designed to increase our employees’ awareness of daily situations that they can prevent or identify to maintain a safe environment,” Muller says. “This is not only for Aspen, but, most importantly, for themselves and their families.”

7/06

By Barbara Mulhern, PLANET Safety Specialist