Volvo Trucks North America recognized Abington, Va.-based Food City and Winnipeg, Manitoba-based Bison Transport with its first Volvo Trucks Safety Award. The awards were announced at the American Trucking Associations Management Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas, Nev.
Early this year, Volvo invited U.S. and Canadian fleets operating more than five units to apply for the awards, which are given in two categories — less than 10 million miles annually and more than 10 million miles. Fleets were ranked by their accident frequency rates for 2008, using the U.S. Department of Transportation definition of a “recordable accident,” as well as their accident prevention programs. Accident frequency rates accounted for the major portion of each fleet’s ranking. Volvo received 247 entries.
With zero recordable accidents in 7.9 million miles of driving during 2008, Food City received the award in the under-10 million mile category. The 75-tractor fleet serves 105 supermarkets in Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee.
Bison, which operates 1,050 tractors, won the over-10 million mile category with a rate of 0.19209 accidents per million miles traveled. The carrier has been recognized frequently for its safety program; the Truckload Carriers Association presented it with its grand prize in fleet safety for three consecutive years beginning in 2006. And recently, CCJ recognized Bison as an innovator for its overall safety efforts, including a recent initiative to use simulators to show local automobile drivers what driving a truck around cars is like.
“Food City and Bison Transport represent extraordinary ongoing achievements in the safe operation of trucks,” says Scott Kress, Volvo’s senior vice president of sales and marketing. “Both of these companies have taken the concept of safety and made it the foundation of their fleets. They have focused significant resources and talent on recruitment, training, maintenance and equipment.”
Both Food City and Bison Transport say their drivers are empowered to decide when conditions are unsafe for driving, including weather, traffic or other factors. For a video describing the two companies’ safety efforts, click here.
