The trophy is awarded annually to the area with the greatest reduction in accidents over the course of a year. In the past, the port’s rail department and temperature-controlled examination facility have repeatedly taken the title, however following last year’s trend set by the port’s ‘B’ Shift, ‘C’ Shift has walked away with the award for 2011.
The members of ‘C’ Shift, which includes berth operators, crane drivers, internal movement vehicle drivers, and terminal managers, managed to reduce of the number of reportable accidents on the shift by 64% during the year, one of the largest reductions ever seen at the port. The trophy was named after John Bubb, a former manager at the port, in honour of his support and commitment to improving safety in the port.
David Gledhill, Chief Executive Officer of Hutchison Ports (UK) Ltd, which owns the Port of Felixstowe, said:
“This trophy recognises the group demonstrating the most significant improvement in Health and Safety over the year. In this case, C Shift have made a dramatic improvement in their accident rates, and I would like to thank them all for their superb efforts and congratulate them on this excellent achievement. There is no level of accidents that we consider acceptable, even one accident is one too many. It is encouraging, however, to see that our continual focus on safety and raising the profile of safety in the workplace is paying off, and helping to make the port an ever safer environment to work in.”
The port as a whole managed to reduce reportable accidents by 24% over the course of 2011, having previously gained the OHSAS 18001 Safety standard in 2010, confirming its commitment to the overall safety of its staff. OHSAS 18001 is an Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series for health and safety management systems. It is intended to help organizations to control occupational health and safety risks.