KNOWLEDGE MATTERS
Women in Waste: Hands-On Safety Training from the Wheels Up By Sara Alexander, Operations Supervisor, GFL Environmental Services Inc.
As a new supervisor at GFL Environmental Services (a North American waste management company), I am always looking to expand my knowledge and skills to help me perform my role to the best of my ability. Recently, I was given a supervisory role in the transportation department at GFL Debert (Nova Scotia) and began a search for ways to become more familiar with truck-tractors and trailers. While researching, I came across Kevin Jennings, transportation safety specialist at GFL in Etobicoke, Ontario, on LinkedIn. I asked him about good training courses for an introduction to transport. He had just completed the Industry Roadside Vehicle Inspection Training Course, offered by CVSA, and he highly recommended I take it. The final date for this year was coming up quickly – just two weeks later, it was being held in Rocky View, Alberta. I quickly gained approval from my manager and booked the course on the last day of registration. When I arrived, I had no idea how intense this course would be or how much I would
learn. The course took place June 3-7 and was scheduled with full days, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. At 4 p.m., we would all go out for some hands-on training under the trucks, and we would usually be there until 6 p.m. or later. On our lunch breaks, we would eat quickly so we could head out to the trucks for some more hands-on training. During that week, I worked harder than I ever had in a training course. At the beginning of the course, I could only tell you the very basics about tractors and trailers. By the end of the course, I could tell you the different brake parts, how everything is connected, how to identify different air lines and what the underneath of a truck and trailer looks like. I can now quickly identify items that would place you in violation during a roadside vehicle inspection and if those violations would place you out of service.
To view all upcoming industry training courses, including the Industry Roadside Vehicle Inspection Training Course, go to www.cvsa.org/trainingtype/industry-training. If you’re interested in bringing an industry training course to a locale near you, fill out the training interest form found on that page.
This training course was an absolutely amazing experience, and I would highly recommend it to anyone involved in the trucking industry. n
Above: Attendees benefit from lots of hands-on training under trucks in this course. Left: Sara Alexander and CVSA Director of Inspection Programs Kerri Wirachowsky. Below: Course attendees are given plenty of training material to take home, reference later and share with their colleagues.
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