Trimac Transportation Services Inc won its second Outstanding Performance Trophy in the National Tank Truck Carriers Tank Truck Safety Contest. The company earned the honor with an accident frequency of 0.386 accidents per million miles in 2006. Trimac claimed its first Outstanding Performance Trophy in 2002.
Trimac — which has headquarters in Houston, Texas, and Calgary, Alberta, Canada — was selected from a group of 22 carriers that won the Grand Award in the Competitive Safety Contest in their respective mileage categories for the calendar year. The fleet also is taking home the Grand Award in the “Over 100 million miles class” in the Personnel Safety Contest and a 13th year improvement award.
The management team leading the winning company includes Jeff McCaig, president and chief executive officer; Tom Connard, president of Trimac Transportation USA; Len Comtois, safety director for Trimac Transportation Canada; and Neil Voorhees, safety director for Trimac Transportation US.
The Outstanding Performance Trophy is awarded annually by Heil Trailer International of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is presented to the carrier that is judged to have had the best comprehensive safety program in the tank truck industry during the previous year.
Contest judges this year were: Mike Stevens, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration; Joe Evans, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration; Prasad Sharma, Highway Watch; and Ron Ashby, Ashby Transportation Consultants LLC and FMCSA retired.
NTTC conducts four annual safety contests. These include a Competitive Safety Contest in which carriers compete in separate mileage classes; the Safety Improvement Contest in which a carrier competes against its own record for the previous year; a Personnel Safety Contest that is based on injuries per hours worked; and the Outstanding Performance Contest.
Over the course of 2007, the cumulative Department of Transportation accident frequency for participants in the NTTC's Annual Safety Contest was 0.513. This average represents a significant decrease from the average ratio of 0.545 accidents per million miles traveled in 2006. It should be noted that these figures are for just the companies that participated in the safety contest, not for the tank truck industry overall. In the 2007 contest year, NTTC had 99 entrants traveling 2.54 billion miles, compared with 95 entrants that accumulated 2.55 billion miles the previous year.
Awards to safety directors in charge of the winning programs were presented at the NTTC Tank Truck Safety Council annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas, in April. Winning companies will be recognized at NTTC's 60th Annual Conference & Tank Truck Equipment Show in New York, New York, May 18-20.