TVIRD heavy equipment contractors post zero accident record
Every morning, he diligently checks the road worthiness of his company’s dump trucks. A mechanic for more than 12 years, Eric Tumasis starts the day’s work at the break of dawn to ensure that all the hauling trucks are safe for a 24/7 operation in a rugged and harsh terrain.
Tumasis is the chief mechanic of MSKS Enterprises, one of the seven equipment contractors of TVI Resource Development Philippines, Inc. (TVIRD), a copper-gold mining firm operating in the ancestral land of the Subanon indigenous people in Canatuan, Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte. Despite the early onset of the rainy season, which has made the roads to and from the mine site slippery at times, all of TVIRD’s equipment contractors have maintained an unblemished vehicular accident record in the first quarter of 2009. This achievement can be attributed to good all-weather roads that the company regularly looks after; the contractors’ well maintained trucks and heavy equipment; and a safety plan that both parties designed and are religiously implementing.
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Above, Ariel Maghanoy (left), MSKS site manager, confers with Eric Tumasis, MSKS chief mechanic (far right) and a driver to make sure that TVIRD’s safety plan for contractors is strictly implemented. Maghanoy says the contractors’ excellent safety record is due in large part to the close supervision of TVIRD’s Safety Department.
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“We intend to keep our safety performance records that way and hopefully until the end of the year and the succeeding years,” Ariel Maghanoy, MSKS site manager, says. He was quick to stress, however, that the zero accident record is due in large part to the close supervision by TVIRD’s Safety Department of all its equipment contractors.
“I believe we were able to attain this record because of everybody’s contributions,” he adds. This is a product of better safety management of TVIRD and all of us, the contractors.”
MSKS, a TVIRD contractor for three years, has 16 dump trucks that haul ore from the mine pit to the ore stockpile. It is also part of the team that is tasked to haul copper concentrates from the mine site to the Sta. Maria port, some 37 kilometers from Canatuan, where the product is loaded and shipped to China.
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TVIRD’s Safety Department personnel see to it that regular meetings are conducted with the company’s trucking and heavy equipment contractors. Above, TVIRD Safety Manager Art Abad confers with, from left Edwin Norino, Site Manager of KTHS Trucking Service; Giovanni Subibe, Operations Incharge of MVT Trucking; Arlyn Uy, Site Manager of Grace Trucking Inc.; Zyril Toledo, of LDA Trucking; Danilo Lusay of Suelan Trucking Service; Ariel Maghanoy and Lenlen Nacua of MSKS Enterprise. Below, TVIRD’s Rey Jimeno with key employees of KTHS during their monthly safety meeting
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Maghanoy comments that the safety plan requires the daily thorough checkup of vehicles and equipment before they are fielded. “It is part of our standard operating procedure or SOP. A driver will be fired if he drives a dump truck that does not pass the meticulous inspection of our chief mechanic. That’s how strict we are when it comes to safety. We will never risk people’s lives and limbs.”
Thus, following this SOP, Tumasis checks tires for proper inflation every morning and makes sure that all safety implements, such as fire extinguishers, wheel chocks and early warning devices, are in place and in working order. “I also inspect the steering, brakes, windows for cracks or dirt, and fluid levels like hydraulic fluid, engine oil and coolant for possible leaks.”
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Yovegildo Secorsecon, RBC/Wismilak site manager (right), provides guidance to his men. “Every contractor knows that any time of the day, any day of the week, the inspectors from TVIRD’s Safety Department can conduct random checks on the contractors’ vehicles and equipment.
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The chief mechanic also scrutinizes the visibility and signal aids of each truck such as mirrors, head lights, warning lights, back-up alarms, horns, starters, and gauge readings. “Then I secure loose parts, if any.” Also part of the SOP is to follow the proper maintenance and emergency procedures of vehicles. Drivers or mechanics will not just stop in the middle of the road during breakdowns. They have to, among other things, choose a dry, level spot, always seeing to it that the parking brake is set for repairs.”
Lenlen Nacua, Maghanoy’s assistant, says TVIRD’s Safety Department provides a checklist for contractors’ personnel to follow before they can operate light and heavy equipment. The chief mechanics refers to this checklist in their daily inspection. The accomplished checklists are then submitted to the Safety Department weekly. “However, every contractor knows that any time of the day, any day of the week, the inspectors from TVIRD’s Safety Department can conduct random checks on the contractors’ vehicles and equipment. These unannounced visits have guaranteed that all contractors implement the safety plan at all times,” she says.
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Grace employees follow TVIRD’s safety checklist to the letter. “We are laying the foundation for a safety culture that values the lives of both employees and residents of our host communities,” says Abad.
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Yovegildo Secorsecon of RBC/Wismilak Trucking, Arlyn Uy of Grace Hauling Services, and Edwin Norino of KTHS Trucking agree with Nacua. Uy says the unannounced visits, safety audits, and the monthly pep talk with the Safety Department have helped them sustain a good safety performance record.
Arturo Abad, TVIRD Safety Department manager, emphasizes that because safety is vital in a mining company’s operations, he oftentimes has to “micro-manage” every contractor and conduct safety audits and skills training programs for their personnel. These programs include defensive driving and disaster management. “With the safety plan in place and strictly being implemented, and with all the systems and procedures that we have institutionalized, I am confident that we are laying the foundation for a safety culture that values the lives of both employees and residents of our host communities.”
TVIRD’s seven contractors have a total of 120 employees and are paying business permit fees and community taxes to the town of Siocon, TVIRD’s host municipality. (Lullie Micabalo)