Safety in numbers: the contest includes companies representing almost 18% of U.S. concrete production

Concrete Producer, The, Nov, 2003 by Thomas Harman, Jim Mcclure, Gary M. Mullings, Tom Pittman

The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA) Safety Contest is a safety performance and incentive/award program aimed to foster safe practices at ready mixed concrete plants across the nation. Over the past few years, the program, co-sponsored by THE CONCRETE PRODUCER, has grown to become NRMCA's most popular award recognition program.

The program is designed to be simple, while providing meaningful and fair criteria to recognize individual plants for the commitment to safety. The secondary goal is to gather through industry accident statistics. This year's contest represents safety data from 2002 and is open to all individual facilities operated by NRMCA member companies.

The 2002 NRMCA Safety Contest received 1181 individual plant entries. NRMCA estimates that there are between 6000 and 8000 plants in the United States. The contest represented safety records from companies that produced more than 70 million cubic yards of concrete, or almost 18% of the estimated U.S. production of 391 million cubic yards in 2002.

The submitted data are kept strictly confidential After verification of all data entry and calculations, NRMCA destroys the entry forms and specific company information.

Plants are divided into three categories to promote fairness within the contest. Each category is based on the number of ready mixed concrete trucks that are stationed at each plant. In today's industry, unlike just a few years ago, it is very common, if not the norm, to have trucks that service two, three, and even more plants. In these cases, the producers are instructed to estimate the percentage of their fleet that could be theoretically assigned to a particular plant, or if file number of trucks fluctuated significantly, the average number is used. The three categories follow:

   * Category A: up to 9 trucks

   * Category B: 10-19 trucks

   * Category C: 20 or more trucks

NRMCA requested the following information on the entry forms:

   * Total number of cubic yards (cy) shipped during 2002 from
   that particular plant. This value was used to "level the playing
   field," assuming that more yardage shipped produced a greater
   opportunity for accidents.

   * Number of lost-time accidents (LTAs) at each plant in 2002.
   This includes all accidents that caused one or more employees to
   miss a complete shift of duty.

   * Number of mixer truck accidents (MTAs) resulting in more
   than $5000 in damage where the mixer driver was at fault.

   * Number of fatalities (F) that occurred in accidents in which
   company employees were at fault.

From these factors, a safety score was calculated. The safety score, or Accident Frequency Rate, is the sum of one LTA, one MTA, and one F divided by concrete shipped in 100,000-yard increments.

AFR = 1(LTA MTA F)/CY (100,000)

A certificate of "Excellence in Safety" is awarded to individual plants that are above the 70th percentile in scoring within each of the three categories in the contest. In addition, the same certificate is awarded to all plants with no recorded accidents during 2002.

The five-year trend numbers display an excellent safety record among the plants entered in the contest. The AFR for 2002 was 1.01. This indicates that, on average, the ready mixed plants that entered the contest reported 1.01 accidents (defined by the survey) for every 100,000 cubic yard of concrete produced. The past seven years, the average AFR was 1.14.

2002 excellence in safety awards.

9 or Fewer Trucks

Aggregate Industries, Colorado Denver (Huron #718 & Stapleton #727), Ft. Collins (Linden #739), Fraser (Winter Park #716), Idaho Springs #717, Johnstown #736, Louisville #723

Aggregate Industries, Indiana Angola, Bremen, Leiters Ford, Middlebury, Nappanee, Warsaw Wolcottville

Aggregate Industries, Maryland Annapolis, LaPlata, Pasadena, Woodsboro

Anderson Concrete Corp., Ohio Columbus (South #1)

Arps Red-E-Mix Inc., Nebraska Blair, David City, Decatur (Portable)

Boxley Materials Co, Pounding Mill, Va.

Boxley Materials Co,, West Virginia Mt. Hope (Beckley), Summersville

Buckeye Ready-Mix LLC, Ohio Dresden #4, Dublin #10, Fredericktown #17, Lancaster #5, Lockbourne #8, Ostrander #12, Newark (Ridglet-Tract #2), West Jefferson #9

Builders Supply Co., Louisiana Sibley (Minden), Natchitoches, Springhill

Calaveras Materials, California Coalinga #83, Corcoran #82, Exeten #84, Hanford #81, Porterville #85, Tracy #56

Cardinal Concrete, Virginia Purcellville, Spotsylvania

Carolina Concrete Co., South Carolina Newberry #1, Clinton #2, Laurens #3

Carolina Sunrock Corp. Durham (Muirhead Distribution Center), N.C.

Cemstone Products Co., Minnesota Gibbon, Lake City, Montgomery, Pegout Lake

Cemstone Ready Mix, Wisconsin Amery, Baldwin, Durand, Frederic, Haugen, Spooner

Central Concrete Supermix, Florida Perrine #4, Broward #5

Century Concrete, Iowa Bernard, Maquoketa,

Century Concrete Kansas City (Tiffany Springs), Mo.

Champion Inc., Iron Mountain (Moon Lake), Mich.

Chandler Concrete of Virginia, North Carolina Biscoe #116, Eden #105, Haw River #609, Hillsborough #602, Burlington (Huffman Mill Rd. #605), Madison #106, Pittsboro #111, Randleman #110, Reidsville #104, Roxboro #607, Siler City #109