February 15, 2013
Seminars prevent underground hits
By Terry Murphy CLP
Executing with efficiency and having your staff understand your business technical details contributes to your company’s success.
The particular success that I am talking about is the reduction in underground utility strikes by the landscape industry. Every time we dig, we have an opportunity to be more successful. There is also a chance of doing more damage and increasing your firm’s operating costs.
Back in 2010, I set a personal goal of working towards a 50 per cent reduction over three years on the number of utility hits by the landscape industry. I represent your industry on the Ontario Regional Common Ground Alliance (ORCGA) with this goal in mind.
In year one, we reduced hits by 37 per cent. Year two, we had zero improvement. For year three, I am currently awaiting reports to see how we did. Every time we dig, we can improve our success, but only if we dig properly. The landscape industry’s average costs for utility strikes are estimated at $1-million every year. This should be zero.
When we started our safety blitz to reduce our WSIB premiums in 1998 (in rate group 190), we went from almost 10 per cent down to below four per cent in 2006. This saved millions of dollars for the industry. Our main tools were safety education and training through Farm Safety Association and seminars and meetings by LO.
There is one education program at the local level at the ORCGA’s geographic councils, which you should consider. These are the ORCGA winter meetings, which are similar to our LO Chapter meetings. These meetings and seminars offer free training for you and your supervisors. A schedule of free local seminars and meetings around the province may be found at ORCGA’s website, www.orcga.com/home.asp. You can also contact the association at 1-866-446-4493 to obtain more information.
With costs of underground strikes now running an average of $3,000 or more plus your time, a morning to avoid these costs is a great investment of one morning’s time.
Contact Terry Murphy at tvmurphy@ca.inter.net with any comments or suggestions on this article.
Executing with efficiency and having your staff understand your business technical details contributes to your company’s success.The particular success that I am talking about is the reduction in underground utility strikes by the landscape industry. Every time we dig, we have an opportunity to be more successful. There is also a chance of doing more damage and increasing your firm’s operating costs.
Back in 2010, I set a personal goal of working towards a 50 per cent reduction over three years on the number of utility hits by the landscape industry. I represent your industry on the Ontario Regional Common Ground Alliance (ORCGA) with this goal in mind.
In year one, we reduced hits by 37 per cent. Year two, we had zero improvement. For year three, I am currently awaiting reports to see how we did. Every time we dig, we can improve our success, but only if we dig properly. The landscape industry’s average costs for utility strikes are estimated at $1-million every year. This should be zero.
Achieving goals
How can we further enhance our success and achieve our goals in excavation work? It comes by knowing all the tricks of the trade. How can we further reduce our underground strikes? It comes by education and training in the Best Practices for working and digging underground.When we started our safety blitz to reduce our WSIB premiums in 1998 (in rate group 190), we went from almost 10 per cent down to below four per cent in 2006. This saved millions of dollars for the industry. Our main tools were safety education and training through Farm Safety Association and seminars and meetings by LO.
There is one education program at the local level at the ORCGA’s geographic councils, which you should consider. These are the ORCGA winter meetings, which are similar to our LO Chapter meetings. These meetings and seminars offer free training for you and your supervisors. A schedule of free local seminars and meetings around the province may be found at ORCGA’s website, www.orcga.com/home.asp. You can also contact the association at 1-866-446-4493 to obtain more information.
With costs of underground strikes now running an average of $3,000 or more plus your time, a morning to avoid these costs is a great investment of one morning’s time.
Contact Terry Murphy at tvmurphy@ca.inter.net with any comments or suggestions on this article.