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We’ve seen them all over the place, companies slapping a nice-sounding safety message on their trailers. When a company claims safety to be its top priority, we trust their word to be golden. But are these carriers actually adhering to their mission statements? Only they can answer that question.

Robert Kaferle, Reliance Partners’ director of safety, explains the simple secret to legitimize any safety program, from companies small to large.

“A successful company will empower their people to call out with critical comments and bring solutions to the table,” Kaferle said. “The way to instill this is from the top down, developing a program where everybody’s opinions are met and valued, everybody is empowered to bring problems to the forefront and offer solutions.”

This means everyone — all members of your organization — can voice their concerns on any issue without fear of reprimand.

From a driver refusing to haul a dangerous load to a driver manager explaining to a customer that its driver cannot deliver any faster to a maintenance professional refusing to let a truck operate using poor components, while safety is preached from the top down, its practice starts from the bottom up. Kaferle said that good decision-making should be rewarded at all levels of the organization.