Team Safe Trucking has been working on developing a Forestry Transportation Training Program for Forestry Transportation professionals since 2015. This year the organization has hired Miranda Gowell, a Safety Director from Maine. Miranda has been working on the development of a curriculum alongside Jeremiah O’Donovan, Team Safe Trucking’s Executive Director and the Team Safe Trucking Executive Committee: Mike Macedo, Danny Dructor, Joanne Reese, Keith Biggs, Jimmie Locklear, John Lemire, Scott Barrett, Richard Meyer, Richard Schwab.
Jeremiah O’Donovan recently announced that the Team Safe training curriculum has been developed with three tracks for the online training: Forestry Transportation Owners (FTO), Forestry Transportation Drivers (FTD) and Forestry Transportation Safety Professionals (FTSP). The curriculum includes 30 class offerings and each class covers a specific topic. The classes will range in length from 15-30 minutes. Each training track will be approximately six to seven hours of forestry transportation industry training. After completing each class, a certificate will be issued to the student for that topic. There will be quizzes following each training class, which can be downloaded and saved to document the student’s completion of the training session. When Owners, Drivers and Safety Professionals complete their training tracks, they will receive a picture ID card certifying the individual as either FTO, FTD or FTSP.
Team Safe Trucking’s online training platform has the unique capacity to store and print each student training records at any time after completion of a class. Prospective employers can pay an annual due to Team Safe Trucking to have access to training records. Prospective employers may request training records from Team Safe for prospective drivers.
It has been estimated that there are 88,000 forestry transportation drivers in the United States. Team Safe Trucking has announced their goal to reach 5% of the forestry transportation drivers by years end. When Team Safe Trucking meets this goal, the organization will need to cover costs associated with users utilizing the online training platform. The non-profit is charged based on users using the training platform and if all the potential forestry transportation employees in the United States were reached, the investment for this training will be approximately $180,000.00 per year. Team Safe Trucking Board members have had the goal to provide this training at no-cost to Forestry Transportation Owners, Drivers and Safety Professionals. To keep that goal, Team Safe Trucking is applying for two grants to support this endeavor: OSHA’s Susan Howard Grant and The Washington SHIP Grant.
In 2017, Team Safe Trucking released an online training module for Forestry Transportation Owners and Drivers. This module is available now to mills, logging associations, universities, technical schools and others interested in holding classroom trainings and conducting online trainings. If you are interested in holding a classroom training with Forestry Transportation Owners and or Drivers, or if you would like to talk about sponsorships or memberships please reach out to Miranda Gowell at [email protected] or by phone at 207-841-0250.
For more information on Team Safe Trucking visit https://teamsafetrucking.com/.