BUILDING A SAFER OPERATION


companies to choose from,” says Arlington, adding that the company just made the Best of the Best list, which honors companies with Overall Achievement Award Gold Performance for three consecutive years. “It’s also a lot less expen- sive to prevent accidents than to deal with them afterward.”


Safety Starts at the Top


Arlington, who is also an industry consultant, says that the No. 1 reason why companies don’t take safety as seriously as they should is the fact that it’s time-consuming.


“I hear people tell me constantly that they don’t have time for training,” he


says. “But the fact is, you’re going to make time for safety training one way or another. You’ll either do it in advance and prevent accidents and injuries or you’ll end up having to do it because OSHA shows up or because one of your vehicles had a traffic accident. Wouldn’t you rather do it before something bad happens? The truth of the matter is, if you don’t take the time to train your staff now, you can’t complain about having an untrained staff later.” Raimondi agrees and says, “It starts with you.” “It’s got to start with the business owner,” he continues. “For us, we keep


safety in mind in everything we do. From driving to working in the field to time in the shop. We’re constantly thinking about ways we can be safer.” Of course, it’s important that training isn’t just a once-and-done endeavor.


Kuperus says that at Farmside, safety is an ongoing discussion. They often make use of NALP’s tools, including the tailgate talk sheets, to go over import- ant safety points. Kuperus says it’s incredibly helpful that these are available in both English and Spanish for their bilingual crew. “We do what we can to try and prevent accidents by having regular dis- cussions and training,” Kuperus says. “That’s not to say that accidents never happen. We know that people have accidents and make mistakes and when that does occur, we do everything we can to learn from them so that it doesn’t happen again. We want our team members to know that if you get hurt, it doesn’t just affect you, it affects everyone. It impacts the team and it can even impact their family. We want everyone working safely and smartly to prevent these things from happening in the first place.” Raimondi agrees, adding: “We go out of our way to ensure that all processes and procedures involving safety are enforced. It’s a hallmark of our company to instill both family and safety in everything that we do.” Safety Awards are open to enter now through April 30. Visit the Safe Compa- ny Program tab under the Stand Out tab on www.landscapeprofessionals.org.


Best of the Best


The following companies earned NALP’s Best of the Best Safety Awards. For the past three years, these companies have maintained the Overall Safety Achievement Award—Gold Level status:


Affiliated Grounds


Maintenance Group Inc. Lake City, Pennsylvania


Alliance Landscape Co. LLC Fort Worth, Texas


Arlington Lawncare & Landscape Inc. Lake City, Pennsylvania


B. Rushing Lawn and Landscaping Inc. Lorton, Virginia


Clarence Davids & Co. 


Classic Landscapes Inc. Hampton, Georgia


Curby’s Lawn & Garden LLC Olathe, Kansas


Quality Lawn,


Landscape, & Fence Inc. Casstown, Ohio


Trio Outdoor


Maintenance LLC Mt. Clemens, Michigan


United Right-Of-Way Phoenix, Arizona


WORK SAFE


CAUTION ! 28 THE LANDSCAPE PROFESSIONAL > JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019


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