2022: Taking a Leap Forward — Together — for Safety
January 21, 2022
By Tim Clemente, Vice President, HSSE
Welcome to 2022, our focus this year is to dramatically improved our focus on safety at CoolSys. Last year, we implemented several new initiatives to enhance our company-wide safety culture, including 5 Minutes to Power (5MTP), weekly ergonomics messaging (Power Moves), TRUCE driver telematics, and piloting My Cority, a new safety management system.
These initiatives dramatically affected the frequency rates of injuries (Total Recordable Incident Rate, or TRIR) and at-fault vehicle accidents (Vehicle Incident Frequency Rate, or VIFR). We saw a 20% reduction in the TRIR and a 29% reduction in the VIFR. That’s terrific progress — but there’s so much more work to be done.
Room for Improvement
In October 2021, our Experience Modification Rate (EMR) increased from 1.11 to 1.41. The EMR is based on a three-year review of claims to evaluate the CoolSys risk profile. An ideal EMR is 1.0 or below. Anything above 1.0 can remove us from bidding on certain jobs if the Customer requires a lower EMR.
The first thing CoolSys must do to lower our EMR, is reduce the frequency rate of claims. Fortunately, we are starting to see that occur due to the success of the initiatives we launched in 2021. We still have work to do to keep driving the frequency rate down.
Full Steam Ahead With 5MTP and TRUCE
Moving forward in 2022, we will continue to distribute 5 Minutes to Power throughout CoolSys to raise safety awareness. We will also expand TRUCE telematics across the entire company. In 2021, we piloted TRUCE with the C&I and CLC West fleet. Last year, most at-fault incidents were on vehicles that were not equipped with TRUCE.
Our goal this year is to ensure that all CoolSys drivers are equipped with TRUCE while driving a company vehicle. This initiative has proven results in reducing driver distractions and vehicle incidents, including at-fault collisions, and is a great defense in keeping you safe!
2022 is the year for us to build upon our safety successes and begin our journey toward becoming best-in-class for Safety in the HVAC-R industry. We’re looking forward to working together with you — our great CoolSys team — to create a safer and more prosperous company!