Drivers take turns practicing the three-points-of-contact way of climbing into a cab at a Boyd Bros. Transportation orientation.

Avoiding injury on the job can be helped by training and training again

If you didn’t know it already, working in trucking can be risky. Truck drivers had more nonfatal injuries than any other industry’s workers as of 2007, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Half of the nonfatal injuries were serious sprains and strains. OSHA attributed this to the fact that many drivers are injured loading and unloading.

Safety experts say preventing injuries on the job requires education, demonstration of how to do things right and continuous follow-up to reinforce proper techniques and habits. It all begins when a driver is hired and can be reinforced weekly, monthly or when an accident occurs.

“The key to avoiding injury is to have a good pre-trip and post-trip routine that you follow religiously,” says Sam Cross, safety manager at Rocha Transport, a Truckload Carriers Association safety award winner in 2008 from Modesto, Calif. “You hustle but don’t hurry. When you get in a hurry and short-cut things, that’s when you get hurt.”

Safety managers at carriers say injuries show up most often when drivers are simply getting in and out of a truck and walking around the tractor and trailer. Complaints of bad ankles, bad knees and bad backs are most common. “Bad knees and ankles are from jumping out of the truck and landing in potholes,” Cross says.

Or drivers slip off a step or completely miss steps climbing in or out of a cab, says Jay Blobner, safety director at Stagecoach Cartage & Distribution in El Paso, Texas, another 2008 TCA safety award winner.

Three-point stance