Michael Carlson is a safety manager with ATS. He assists drivers, as well as the operations team, adhere to safety protocols. Before coming to ATS, he had years of hands-on safety experience. He worked for the railroad for a while before starting a career driving, where he hauled hazmat freight for eight years. Michael loves working for safety at ATS because he believes in the program. ATS has a great safety team and it takes each and every person to make the roads and the company safer.
You get in and out of your truck several times per day without thinking twice. Yet did you know that slips, trips and falls in or out of the truck are one of the most common injuries out on the road? I’m a safety trainer at ATS and I’lll explain how using three points of contact can either eliminate the risk of a fall or lessen the severity of an injury.
The maneuver is simple: When getting in or out of the truck, make sure your hands are free of objects and you either have two feet and one hand on the truck or two hands and one foot on the truck. If you do happen to slip, you’ll be less likely to fall to the ground.
The three points of contact maneuver does require a little mindfulness and extra time to think about what you’re doing. However, that extra time you spend doesn’t compare to the amount of downtime you’d have if you got injured on the road.