Safety Day

In keeping with the tradition of APM Terminals, its parent company, Port Pipavav observed Global Safety Day recently. Several training and education events were conducted at the port for staff and contract labourers from October 13 to 15, Exim News Service reports.
Safety Day was observed across all APM Terminals locations simultaneously, in 48 terminals in 34 countries in five continents involving 19,000 employees.

"The safety of our people is extremely important in the APM Terminals group. Our goal is to eliminate workplace accidents and institute best practices to assure safety at all times," asserted Mr Prakash Tulsiani, Managing Director of Port Pipavav.

APM Terminals has adopted a ‘Safety for Life’ programme to aggressively and continuously improve safety practices throughout its global network. Safety education, training, drills and rigorous measurement are designed to bring focus, awareness and positive results to this effort. The company’s measures place it in the top quartile in safety performance in the ports and terminal industry. More importantly, the company shares and benchmarks its progress with other companies and works together with other port operators to extend its best practices and protect more people in the workplace.

At Port Pipavav, several training programmes for safe driving, lashing, awareness of hazards at different locations within the port, while handling hazardous cargo, etc., were conducted. These were followed by live demonstrations and sessions to drive home the unconditional need for following safety rules. The port follows the principle ‘If you see it, you own it’, urging everyone to pay immediate heed to any potential danger observed at any time by anyone.

The highlight of the celebrations was the screening of the film ‘Vir’. It was directed, acted, produced and screened by Pipavav employees and used real-life incidents and experiences to demonstrate the human cost and impact of ignoring safety rules at the port. The film was very well received and the families, especially the children of staff, participated enthusiastically in all the events.

"It is important to catch them young," said Mr Sanjay Singh, Head of Safety at Port Pipavav. "We need to remind ourselves again and again about the urgency of following safety rules. Whether it is ground staff or labourers or senior management or children or families, all of us have to own the responsibility of making Port Pipavav a safe port."

(Source: Transport Weekly)