Attaining the Health and Safety Certificate of Recognition (COR) isn’t about the trophy. It’s about positive thinking and working to keep everyone safe.

Triple Eight Transport earned its COR certification in November 2023 with a score of 98% on their audit, which involved 58 interviews and site observations. .

The company began as many transport companies do, with one man, a truck and trailer, and big plans. Pardeep Arora established Triple Eight Transport in 2006, with the help of his wife, Deepati. Today, Triple Eight Transport is an asset-based carrier with more than 400 trucks, 1000 trailers (reefer, heat, and dry vans), its own maintenance facility, and more than 500 employees. Triple Eight Transport is headquartered in Abbotsford, BC, and operates mainly in western North America.

The name Triple Eight Transport comes from the intersection of 8s in the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Arora. They met on November 8, married on December 8, and their first child was born in the eighth month. It’s an appealing history that has shaped the company’s team spirit and the family values imbued in the company culture.

Triple Eight Transport’s core values include “fostering a positive work environment” and striving for “the highest ethical standards, values, safety, honesty and mutual trust” in a company that invests in its staff, “supporting their growth and continued development.” Those values extend into the company’s safety and compliance programs, which the company notes are “designed, implemented, and reinforced to ensure that our Triple Eight team, customers and customers’ assets are safe.”

Preparing for a COR Audit

As Triple Eight Transport prepared for its COR audit, SafetyDriven provided guidance that helped enhance, apply, and expand the company’s established safety culture. The safety team notes that SafetyDriven was very supportive, responsive to questions, and helped streamline onboarding new members. They ensured the preparedness of Triple Eight Transport drivers on Vancouver Island; they don’t work on the mainland and it would be easy to miss something like an email blast. Auditor John Dunn, who lives on the Island, met the drivers and found their knowledge and safety values excellent. It was clear SafetyDriven was there to help the company succeed.

A Positive Safety Culture

It’s natural to emphasize what goes wrong in our days, rather than recognizing and prioritizing what goes right. While we need to be aware that hazards exist, things can go sideways, and there will be bad days, focusing on good days and what goes well yields more successes. Triple Eight Transport’s safety practices include prioritizing conversations about what went well that week, while also discussing and finding solutions to address any failures. This approach helps to maintain a positive work environment and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

Maintaining a positive attitude has reinforced the company’s health and safety practices; Triple Eight Transport was always a safe place to work, but people became more interested and invigorated by changes they saw as they prepared for the COR audit. Customer Service created flash cards, quizzing each other daily. Accounting had regular safety quizzes. Operations looked for missing training and ensured drivers were up-to-date. In the maintenance shop, they painted lines for walk-ways and made time for staff to clean up at the end of each shift, getting the shop ready for the next shift. The drivers—80% of the company’s workforce—were all on board as they prepared for the audit. In fact, COR would not have been attainable without their support and dedication to safety. They are literally the driving force of Triple Eight Transport.

In the Safety and Compliance Office, the focus is on coaching and mentoring. But you can’t reach people if they don’t stop to listen, so they made the office a more inviting space. Drivers began to stop to say hello rather than dropping off paperwork and leaving quickly. Morning meetings became more than learning opportunities, with contests and thought prompts providing creative ways to keep everyone thinking about teamwork, efficiency, personal safety, and looking out for the other guy. They talk about highlights of the week and celebrate each other’s successes. Safety meetings are campaigns to promote specific aspects of health and safety, such as staying healthy on the road. There is a visible sense of pride among staff.

The Next Audit

Working together to embrace a positive safety culture will help Triple Eight Transport as it expands. Another audit will inevitably come up. And Triple Eight Transport will definitely be ready.

The amendments to Part 3 of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation regarding the first aid section will take effect on November 1st, 2024.

Performing a Written First Aid Assessment

• Employers will be required to conduct an annual written first-aid assessment for each workplace/site
• Employers will need to complete this with the consultation of the Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) or Worker Health and Safety Representative
• Conduct an annual drill and update procedures as needed

Updating First Aid Supplies, Facilities, & Requirements of First Aid Attendants

First Aid Certification Levels:

They were previously known as Levels 1, 2 and 3. First Aid courses will be changed to Basic, Intermediate and Advanced, and the duration for Intermediate courses will be reduced to two days. Courses will be aligned with the CSA Z1210-17 standard.

Note: Current Occupational First Aid certificates (OFA) will remain valid until their expiry date.

First Aid Equipment Requirements:

The new changes to the first aid kit requirements are aligned with the CSA Z1210-17 standards and are determined in Schedule 3-A.

• OHS Guidelines for Part 3: Occupational First Aid (preliminary draft)
• Backgrounder: Occupational First Aid Regulatory Changes
• First Aid Assessment Worksheet
• Changes to Occupational First Aid Requirements: Frequently Asked Questions

AuditSoft, the leading Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) auditing software, has been selected to provide auditing and data analytics solutions to the Certificate of Recognition (COR) program offered by SafetyDriven – Trucking Safety Council of BC.

The partnership with SafetyDriven, which is based in Langley, British Columbia, means AuditSoft now supports the trucking industry in all of Canada’s Western provinces. It follows a number of new partnership announcements from AuditSoft, which continues to grow and disrupt the COR auditing industry with user-friendly solutions that standardize auditing and drive business intelligence.

“Demand for COR continues to grow, and forward-thinking associations are searching for ways to make the COR auditing process more efficient and effective,” said Ben Snyman, Cofounder and CEO of AuditSoft. “AuditSoft is proven to reduce COR auditing time by up to 50% whilst unlocking a wealth of OHS information. SafetyDriven will be deploying the AuditSoft suite of software to streamline their auditing and quality assurance process, and we’re thrilled to be supporting their COR program.”

As the administrator of WorkSafeBC’s COR program for the transportation and warehousing sectors, SafetyDriven provides guidance to employers and owner/operators on how to obtain their Certificate of Recognition by creating an efficient operation that is committed to workplace safety and effective injury management. Companies who achieve COR are eligible for a 10 percent rebate on the previous year’s WorkSafeBC premiums.

“SafetyDriven is committed to the elimination of workplace injuries and fatalities across BC’s trucking and supply chain industries through the delivery of COR. AuditSoft will add value to the COR auditing process, and our clients will benefit greatly from its auditing and data analytics solutions,” said Earl Galavan, COR Manager at SafetyDriven.

Learn more about AuditSoft for COR.

About AuditSoft

AuditSoft is the leading OHS auditing software. Associations and Certifying Bodies partner with AuditSoft to supply their members with cutting-edge auditing tools and unlock valuable audit insights. Each year, AuditSoft is used to conduct thousands of audits in high-risk industries across Canada. Find more information on AuditSoft at www.auditsoft.co

Safety is vital in an environment that involves huge vehicles and large-scale operations. At Copper Mountain Mining Corporation, the safety value says it all: “Every day, every shift, everyone goes home safe.”

Mining has been important to BC’s economy since the Oregon Treaty of 1846. Mining at Copper Mountain (formerly Allenby Mountain) began soon after, with underground mining from 1923 until 1957. After intermittent operations under different companies, the mine closed in 1996.

Copper Mountain Mining Corporation acquired the mine in 2006 and after developing new infrastructure, began production in 2011. The Copper Mountain Mine near Princeton in southern BC is the company’s flagship. The company recently announced, based on current mineral reserves, that the mine’s life has been extended by 32 years.

The company puts safety at the forefront. Health and Safety Manager Jeff  Zmurchyk led the company’s safety program to COR accreditation in 2021. He became passionate and learned about occupational health and safety in an indirect but relevant way. He learned about injuries playing and coaching Junior hockey, about emergency response as a firefighter, and about preventing injuries through nine years in health and safety in the mining industry.

Zmurchyk joined Copper Mountain in 2020. The company was adopting fresh perspectives and implementing new processes fundamental to improving safety, including the visible felt leadership approach that sees management commit to being in the field with workers. There is no “us and them”; managers spend time with their teams, learning what they do, how they stay safe, and ensuring they have the right tools.

Big Trucks and Other Stuff

About 500 personnel work at the Copper Mountain site. Equipment includes: a mechanical loader that was once the largest in the world, 4 hydraulic shovels, 5 rotary drills, 28 220-tonne haulage trucks that weigh 1 million pounds (454 tons) fully loaded, and a fleet of support equipment—bulldozers, front-end loaders, trucks, cranes. It’s easy to imagine the safety hazards involved. An operation that uses huge machines and blasts rock needs to focus on safety without making any compromises, and Copper Mountain does that.

Safety First

The company’s health and safety practice includes a culture of empowerment. From the top down, everyone sees safety as part of the workday. Open two-way communication is among Copper Mountain’s values. The communication strategy includes messages sent out with payroll or to cell phones and e-blasts with health and safety advisories. It also includes safety bulletins, toolbox talks, and monthly safety meetings for each of the 20 crews. Zmurchyk attends every meeting to hear from workers.

The company gives each individual incentives and targets for quarters with no lost time injuries (LTI). Although their safety record is stellar, Copper Mountain is always looking for more ways to improve and incentivize safety. The company uses the total injury frequency (TIF) rate to measure their safety success. A TIF rate is the number of LTI, recordable and non-recordable medical aids, and first aids per 200,000 hours worked. The TIF rate at the Copper Mountain Mine in 2021 was 17.

A particularly important part of the company’s safety protocol is emergency preparedness. Emergency response is handled on-site on the sprawling 6,200-hectare mine. Mine rescue team members are part of each crew so they are able to launch a coordinated response anywhere on the mine site. Rescue teams are responsible for all types of rescues—fire, rope, water—and regularly take part in mine rescue and first aid competitions. Zmurchyk notes that the team embraces safety and the mine “has people lined up to participate” in the competitions.

Toward Sustainable Mining

Copper Mountain is justifiably proud of its safety practice as well as its sustainable mining efforts, which are on track to become net zero by 2035. In 2021, it earned an AA rating under the Mining Association of Canada’s Toward Sustainable Mining standards, exceeding its goal of an A rating. Another sustainability priority is the company’s commitment to land reclamation, with a target to restore 25 hectares per year for the next 10 years. In 2021, the company planted 4,800 trees and 11,700 shrubs in the Wolf Creek Realignment area. One year after reclamation began, wildlife is returning to the area.

Of particular interest in mining sustainability is Copper Mountain’s innovative Trolly Assist system, which helps haulage trucks up a 1-km ramp using BC Hydro electricity. The trucks have pantographs—framework much like the equipment that provides current to streetcars from overhead wires. Hydro-electricity is a cleaner source of power than diesel and reduces the amount of diesel used to ascend the ramp from 35 litres to 1. And the trolley trucks make the climb twice as fast as diesel-only trucks.

Copper Mountain’s attention to safety and commitment to sustainability are as big as their giant trucks!