BILLINGS — At Weave, a Lockwood-based transportation company, safety protocols are embedded into daily operations. Roger Buskirk performs thorough daily inspections of his truck before hitting the road.
Watch Weave talk about how and why they are taking proper safety precautions:
"The biggest thing is to make sure that everything's functional," Buskirk said Wednesday.
If any issues are discovered during the inspection, drivers must wait for repairs before departing.
"We just wait for the shop to show up and have them fix it before we leave out," Buskirk said.
Weave's safety record was recognized recently by the Montana State Fund, the state's largest workers' compensation fund. The Montana State Fund recently returned more than $4 million to Yellowstone County companies, including Weave, as dividends for maintaining low workplace accident rates and keeping insurance costs down.
The program rewards businesses that prioritize employee safety and invest in accident prevention measures.
In Lockwood, Ryan Joy, one of several Weave mechanics maintaining the company's fleet of 80 vehicles, works to keep drivers safe on the road.
"Every day, all day long, 10 hours a day," Joy said.
The mechanics face their own workplace hazards while servicing heavy equipment and handling large parts.
"Most of the dangers that we face, safety is kind of a culture that we have to pay attention to because of the big equipment," Joy said. "Heavy equipment, heavy parts, team lift, things like that."
Safety Director Sam Buchanan maintains high expectations for all employees regarding workplace safety protocols.
"The focus there is to try to make sure that everybody understands the expectations that we have, at least from a safety perspective," Buchanan said.
The company treats safety as an ongoing commitment rather than a one-time initiative.
"We're almost in a continual improvement environment. You don't really stop with safety. You're trying to always be on the front end of it," Buchanan said.
Despite success stories like Weave, Montana continues to rank among the lowest for workplace safety, according to the Montana State Fund. Holly O'Dell, president of the Montana State Fund, believes cultural factors may contribute to this statistic.
"We think a lot of it might have to do with our kind of rugged independence and can-do-it mentality, right? I'm just going to get this thing done. And then I'm going to get back to work and push through if I get hurt. And that could be it," O'Dell said.
O'Dell praised Weave's commitment to employee safety and injury prevention.
"Weave is just knocking it out of the park," Odell said. "Incredible commitment to safety, investment in those employees, innovation on the safety front to prevent injuries, and find out what happened."
Weave received a dividend of over $100,000, which Buchanan says reflects the company's dedication to maintaining a safe work environment.
"We're actually pretty proud of that check that we received. But really the idea is to hopefully take some of that, put it back into resources for the company, whether it's training or equipment," Buchanan said.
