TOTAL announces Christ as winner for Safety Award

Health and Safety are a very high priority for TOTAL. To actively combat safety risks, TOTAL has started a safety contest under its contractors.

The Otto Christ AG (Memmingen, Germany), one of the leading car wash manufacturers in Europe, has won the Safety Award in the category "fuel stations". Board member Alexander Christ was interviewed about the companies strategies for health and safety:

bonjour: 4,860 callouts last year according to Daisy logs, and that without a single accident - what kind of measures did lead to this kind of result?

Alexander Christ: We undertake one week long training sessions per year for our technicians and maintenance staff. Those training sessions are scenario-based and very practical: We simulate different types of accidents on site and also spend time detailing how a possible accident could influence the life of each individual employee. In addition to this the whole topic is regularly covered in our company newspaper, focusing on different topics. One of last year's topics was "vehicles", one of this year's is "ladders". Following those trainings we undertake random safety checks on sites and internal contest for our employees.

bonjour: What would be an example for a dangerous situation for one of your technicians?

Alexander Christ: That could be types of work where the technician has to get himself into a potentially dangerous situation to get the job done. For example working at high places, a technician really has to plan his approach in some situations. Another topic would be high temperature work such as welding or using a grinder: producing sparks at a petrol station can be very dangerous.

bonjour: Reporting so called "near misses", so accidents that did not happen but could have happened, was one of the criteria of the "Safety Award". How did you handle that?

Alexander Christ: We visualize each incident with photos included and ideas how to avoid this danger in the future. This means our people on the ground are part of the process. Depending on how they judge the severity of the incident, a report is sent to the operator of the station or the Safety Manager. Some problems can be addressed directly on site, some are forwarded to TOTAL. One of our solutions was a safety adapter that prevents the so called "unauthorized activation of power lines" (Golden Rule No 7).

bonjour: What can station operators do to help?

Alexander Christ: One of the main points is communication. Employees going off shift have to let their replacements know that there is a contractor on site. When more than one contractor are working on site, the station manager has to let all contractors know about each other.

This interview was conducted by Silke Jannasch, Editor TOTAL bonjour

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