With 2020 right around the corner—and because risk management topics never really go out of style—we thought we’d close out a year of risk-management articles with this 2019 risk management roundup: a bite-sized list of takeaways from topics we’ve covered the past eleven months. It’s our hope that as you plan for next year, you’ll dedicate the time you need to making sure you’re managing your risk and becoming a better, safer organization.
When an incident occurs and people are injured, once the fault is proven to be yours, you should absolutely pay your fair share. I’m not questioning that. But I want to point out that the challenge many companies face today isn’t paying their fair share; it’s paying their unfair share. There are often myriad unseen, uncontested, so-called “injuries”—like general aches and pains and soft tissue issues—that surface after the incident has occurred. These injuries often come with additional expenses from lawyers, physicians and therapists who may appear to be working together to maximize the insurance payout.
Simulators have been used for years to train commercial and military fighter pilots. Yet only recently have they begun to be used in the construction industry as a way of increasing the safety and efficiency of employee onboarding. Concrete pumping companies have historically trained new employees on the job site; the industry has never had a separate training facility, despite the high-stakes nature of learning to pump concrete. That’s about to change with the commercial availability of concrete pumping simulators.
Dramatic changes are in store for the ACPA Operator Training and Certification Program. Referred to as “Certification 2020,” the new program will launch by mid-year 2020 for ACPA operator certification.
“The new training and certification program focuses on elevating the quality and effectiveness of operator safety training and will raise the bar for safety in our industry,” says Christi Collins, ACPA executive director.
The 2019 ACPA Education Conference proved to be another big success, as the concrete pumping industry gathered to learn, network and see the newest in equipment and technology. With the recurring theme of “Pumping Knowledge into Your Business,” this year’s conference was held Oct. 6-7 at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Kissimmee, Florida.
According to various sources, Reptile strategy has taken the plaintiffs’ bar by storm. This is at least in part because Reptile theory asserts that you can prevail at trial by speaking to—and scaring—the primitive part of jurors’ brains, commonly understood as the part of the brain they share with reptiles.
On March 21, 2019, the ACPA’s two-year exemption from the federal Hours of Service (HOS) requirement that commercial drivers take a 30-minute off-duty break after eight hours of work expired. ACPA applied for a five-year renewal of its exemption from the 30-minute break requirement in September 2018. However, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) incorrectly assumed that concrete pumpers did not need the 30-minute break exception after FMCSA granted ACPA a two-hour extension to the HOS short- haul exemption* in November 2018.
