Watco Receives Top-Rated Maritime Safety Award

Above from (left to right): AEU Loss Control Manager Jason Lake, AEU Chief Commercial Officer Winchester Thurber, and Watco Vice President of Safety Brent Shields

The outstanding safety record of our marine ports and terminals recently earned Watco a top honor from insurance carrier American Equity Underwriters (AEU).

Each year AEU presents safety awards to select American Longshore Mutual Association (ALMA) members with best-in-class safety records. Award criteria are based on safety metrics including the frequency and severity of workers’ compensation incidents from the previous year.

Since joining the ALMA in 2016, Watco has received this award three times. This year Watco was one of only 29 companies out of 1,600 ALMA members to receive this top safety award.

Watco Vice President of Safety Brent Shields said, “This safety award showcases how dedicated Watco team members are to putting safety first. It’s great to see their hard work get recognized from the AEU.”

Shields received the award from AEU Loss Control Manager Jason Lake and AEU Chief Commercial Officer Winchester Thurber during an award presentation at the Safe Performance Center earlier this month. Watco terminal managers, SVP of Operations Jason Ford and Scott Rudolph, and SVP Environmental, Health & Safety Travis Herod were also in attendance.

Thurber congratulated Watco and said, “As a three-time winner of this award, Watco truly is one of the safest businesses in the industry. Watco’s strong safety culture speaks highly of the training and safety programs that they have in place. We’re honored to once again recognize them with this top honor.”

Team Members Complete Leadership Course

Seven more Watco team members recently completed Watco University’s Foundations of Leadership course. This training took place over two days in Mitchell, South Dakota. Several of these team members were already in supervisory roles, but they’ll take the lessons learned back to their locations to continue to grow and develop as Watco leaders.

Pictured L-R: Ryan Larson, Ringneck & Western Railroad (RWRR) operator; Matt Hayes, Kaw River Railroad trainmaster; Cameron Ginther, project manager; Roland Mitchell, RWRR track inspector; Richard Gruber, Wisconsin & Southern Railroad maintenance of way training officer; Lynn Eckmann, RWRR conductor and engineer; and Bobby “Kraig” Butcher, RWRR conductor and engineer.

This was also one of Watco U Trainer Darl Farris’ final classes before transitioning back to operations as general manager of Watco’s new Texas Coastal Bend Railroad in Corpus Christi, Texas. Congrats to these team members and Darl!