Paul Smart

Said the following about Tim Shakerley - **HAS LEFT**:

“Engineering Director Tim Shakerley has been the driving force behind unprecedented safety improvements at Freightliner, significantly reducing lost-time injuries whilst championing and promoting a change in safety culture that the workforce in all areas of the business in the UK, Europe and the Middle East are engaged in and committed to.

As an established, award winning rail freight company, Freightliner was rightly proud of its industry-leading safety performance within the UK freight sector. However, following its acquisition by US railroad company Genesee & Wyoming (G&W) in March 2015, a recognised global safety leader in the industry, being the best in the UK was no longer good enough – the goal had changed and only ‘Zero Injuries’ was good enough.

Hence, Freightliner embarked on a new journey of safety improvement to enhance its historical safety performance and culture, and move to the next level, led by Tim.

Tim’s hands-on approach in leading this safety improvement programme was pivotal to its success and despite his already demanding Engineering Director role; Tim has taken personal responsibility for developing a culture where all members of staff take ownership of their own personal safety and the safety of their co-workers.

The safety initiatives driven by Tim include:

• Investment in enhanced training for 450 leaders, managers and staff in safety management techniques to reinforce the building blocks of good safety management.

• Delivery of ‘Target Zero’ safety training to all remaining staff in the practical elements of safety, hazard spotting and risk assessment.

• Appointment of safety champions across the business to build staff engagement with our 'Zero Injuries' goal.

• Defining new standards for buildings, vehicles, PPE requirements and equipment in terms of hazard identification and elimination, and then investing in sites to reduce the hazards and risks in the environment.

• Raising both the conscious and subconscious safety messaging through a re-designed suite of safety metrics, making safety performance accessible and visible to all, as well as count-up injury clocks to measure days since last injury at each location, posters, safety boards, safety statistics, bulletins, safety branding and apparel.

• Establishment of a first response comprehensive incident investigation plan to analyse historical indicators and recommend future preventive actions in the event of any future incidents.

• Introduction of pan European monthly safety calls hosted by Tim, with over 250 front line managers representing all aspects of the business to discuss safety performance, trends and lessons learned.

• Creation of an employee question/answer system to address questions and communicate answers across the employee base.

• Development of a safety engagement strategy with the trade unions to bring them into the new G&W “safety family” approach.

These initiatives have not just been applied to our own staff and sites. Conscious that our industry partners can have a huge influence on safety, Tim launched a collaborative initiative with Network Rail to improve hazard identification and reporting on Network Rail infrastructure, with jointly measured response times for closure. This has helped Network Rail get better information on the hazards on the network and improved fix times that, in turn, has reduced risk to the railway workforce. Hazard reports, using photographs and e-reports, has helped to quadruple the rate of reporting with close out times improved dramatically.

Paul McMahon, MD, Freight & National Passenger Operations, Network Rail said:

“I strongly support Tim Shakerley’s nomination for Safety Person of the Year. Over the last few years we have worked increasingly closely and productively with Freightliner on safety issues – and this is testament to Tim’s collaborative and professional approach and experience. In particular, Tim has led important work with us to develop a process to report Freightliner staff lost time injuries and hazards on Network Rail’s infrastructure, which Freightliner staff have a significant interaction with on a daily basis. We have subsequently rolled this process out to other FOCs and it is included on the Freight & National Passenger Operators Scorecards in 2017/18.”

Customers, suppliers and industry bodies have also engaged with Tim’s drive for improved safety, supporting initiatives and recognising the improvements made.

Geoff Spencer, Rail Safety & Standards Board (RSSB) Non-Executive Director (Freight) said:

“Leading Health and Safety on Britain's Railway is the industry endorsed strategy to facilitate work to achieve continuous improvement in the health and safety performance of the railways in Great Britain, and Tim’s contribution in delivering this should be commended. His passion for driving workforce safety improvements at Freightliner has delivered significant positive results and I am confident that Tim will continue to raise standards even further.”

And the results speak for themselves. Last year Freightliner UK/Europe Region, was awarded the President’s Safety Award for ‘Most improved safety performance amongst G&W operating regions’ for achieving the largest reduction in lost time injuries of any G&W operating region with 63% fewer injuries than in 2015.

In addition, 32 sites across the UK remained injury-free in 2016, representing an impressive 1.9 million man-hours worked, injury-free.

Other achievements include:

• Workforce Safety finalist at the UK Rail Industry Awards 2016.

• Freightliner Road Services awarded ‘Company Driver Safety award’ at the 2016 Brake Fleet Safety Awards.

• Freightliner Safety film – ‘I could have saved a life today’ featuring frontline colleagues – used extensively as part of safety training throughout G&W, and winner of a prestigious EVCOM Screen Award at BAFTA in the Health and Safety category.

Recently, Freightliner’s insurers visited our sites at Southampton, Birmingham and Crewe and reported excellence in safety management, highlighting consistent delivery, leading to an embedded safety culture.

Sally Roberts, Senior Liability Underwriter at Zurich UK said: “I found the visits to be incredibly insightful and, in the time that I have been involved with Freightliner, I’ve seen a cultural change and awareness towards safety and zero tolerance attitudes towards accidents that could have been prevented. Freightliner have always been focused with regards to safety but even more so in the last year with the influence of G&W and, as I stated in Crewe, I’m 100% sure that if I visited another site the same level of focus on safety would be replicated which is great to see and hear.”

In summary, none of the above could have been achieved without the driving force that is Tim Shakerley. His determination and personal commitment to improving safety and engaging staff with the new safety culture and our shared journey towards ‘Zero Injuries’ deserves recognition in this category.“