2 minute read
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.
This training course was an absolutely amazing experience, and I would highly recommend it to anyone involved in the trucking industry.
