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Category: Safety

Boxley Appreciates Driver’s Top Safety Scores

National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, annually held in the second week of September, is a great time to acknowledge our world-class drivers. During the first six months of this year, we had 12 drivers who drove an impressive 3,000+ miles while maintaining a safety score above our desired 90%.

Boxley, a Summit Materials Company, monitors our drivers, allowing us to coach, recognize, and reward our drivers’ performance regularly. As an incentive, our drivers who end the year with 6,000 miles or more while meeting safety score requirements receive a gift card and lunch from the safety department.           

Congratulations to our 2021 Fleet Elite Drivers, recognized earlier this year!

left to right: Richard Engle, Tom Meadows, Ken Mosley, Denise Starling, David Olds, Michael Williamson, Edgar Cruz

“Our drivers are top of the line, and we want to ensure they know how much we appreciate their attention to safety while on the road.” Said Andy Vassar, Boxley Safety Director.

Check out our top 12 drivers listed below and make sure to follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram to find out who finishes off the year strong!

Top Driver Performance 2022
(January-June)

NameBusiness LineTotal Distance (mi)Safety Score (%)
Arellanes-Cruz, EdgarAggregate10,56898%
Starling, DeniseAsphalt14,53496%
Gusler, JacobAggregate4,62096%
James, ClayAsphalt10,83995%
Engle, RichardAsphalt6,70995%
Rector, RobertAsphalt4,17495%
Farris, James AAsphalt4,85694%
Mayhew, CecilAggregate5,39393%
Tweedy, CarltonAggregate3,71193%
Monroe, MontanaAsphalt9,87492%
Luis, RamosAsphalt9,91190%
Olds, DavidAsphalt3,17890%

Boxley’s Safety Director Is A Driving Force Behind A World-Class Safety Culture

At Boxley, safety is set in stone, held as the highest value, and emphasized daily. Creating an outstanding safety culture is more than words; it requires actions, like those taken by our Safety Director, Andy Vassar.

He says, “Safety is our first job every day. It doesn’t take breaks. We must value the safety of ourselves and our coworkers to make sure everyone goes home to their families.”

With almost 29 years at Boxley, Andy has been trained and worked in every position in the aggregate division. This, along with multiple state certifications and completion of a company-backed development program, provides the necessary awareness and knowledge to always be on the lookout for what can be improved.

Andy spends his day out in the field, focusing on our locations across southwest Virginia, as often as possible. Adhering to MSHA and OSHA regulations means there is always a plant or piece of equipment that needs to be inspected or an employee who needs to be trained, whether it’s their first time or an annual refresher.

Leading by example, Andy lives Boxley’s safety culture and encourages collaborative ideas from all employees to continue building a world-class safety culture of zero accidents. He says, “I find it gratifying to serve all the employees of Boxley. We have great people across the board.”

To read some of the achievements Boxley has received with Andy’s safety guidance, check out:

To learn more about Boxley’s commitment to safety, visit our new website. Also, be sure to follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram

Boxley Cultivates Safety Leadership

In recognition of National Construction Safety Week, we’re going to dive into Isaiah Christian’s role as our Safety Manager for Asphalt and Construction to find out how his leadership impacts our asphalt crews.

How does Isaiah support a high prioritized safety culture that exemplifies this year’s theme of Connected. Supported. Safe.?

Connected: His day starts by checking in on the road crews, shops, and asphalt plants. 

Supported: He listens to and addresses any safety concerns employees share with him and keeps an eye out for improvement opportunities while in the field.

Safe: He proactively works to ensure our crews have the necessary tools and training. 

Each crew in our market participated in the following courses this year:

  • Work Zone Training
  • Annual Refresher Training 
  • Smith System Driver Training
  • Task Training 

“Being a part of Boxley’s safety culture has completely changed my mindset. I was 19 years old when I came into the industry and still had a sense of immortality. However, the positions I’ve held, especially transitioning into the safety manager position, have exposed me to the real dangers we face daily,” Isaiah points out.

Isaiah’s Path to Safety Leadership

Boxley provides opportunities for career advancement, no matter what position you start in. Isaiah initially joined our asphalt division part-time as a laborer while attending college. Upon graduation, he came on board full-time as a Management Trainee. Through internal promotions, we had a vacancy in our Safety Department and Isaiah stepped up to the challenge. 

Since joining Boxley’s team, Isaiah has become trained in OSHA 10, VDOT Sediment and Control, and state-certified for Virginia & North Carolina as a Traffic Control Supervisor. He is currently working on obtaining his CHSP (Certified Health and Safety Professional) certification.            

If you have interest or questions about pursuing a career within the Summit Materials family, please reach out to Manisha Hall at (540) 777-7613. 

To learn more about Boxley’s commitment to safety, visit our new website. Also, be sure to follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram

Boxley’s Safety Scorecard

Boxley’s world-class safety program is the cornerstone of the Boxley Way. Our safety culture underpins every facet of our operation, from driver safety to safety-first policies and procedures throughout our operations.

Safety is a value, it’s our first job and how we work.

Each year, we set safety goals and track our performance, emphasizing continuous improvement year over year through our safety mindset and practices. The numbers speak for themselves—our employees take safety seriously. In 2021, Boxley employees worked an outstanding 950,700 hours, during which our fleet drivers drove 2,763,465 miles without a single accident. In addition, our locations underwent their regular inspections, 20 of which were citation-free.

Our work was recently recognized by our parent company Summit Materials. We’re thrilled to add 2021 Top Safety Performer, 2021 World Class Preventable Vehicle Accidents, and 2021 Top 5S Performance to our award collection from previous years.

“Our employees show up every day and put in 100%. This past year we began to see the safety culture we’ve been working hard towards implementing. We know this isn’t the time to let off the gas; we’re looking at 2022 as another year to maintain and improve our safety performance,” said Boxley Safety Director Andy Vassar.

We work hard to keep employees informed on safety events inside the company and across the country. Every incident, good catch, and citation is a learning experience that could prevent another person from getting injured. We incentivize our employees to stay aware of safety hazards and look for ways to improve the work environment for everyone. Our safety culture is an individual and team effort.

Our managers regularly conduct toolbox talks on relevant topics to keep in mind, such as extreme temperature exposure, Boxley’s 10 Safety Principles, unfortunate incidents in the industry, and more. Safety stand-downs are also performed when necessary to really drill home the importance of the safety topic.

“Our employees know that when they have an idea how to make something better, they’re going to be heard,” said Vassar, “We encourage reporting anything an employee has an issue with and promote brainstorming to find the best solution. We want people to feel safe coming to work every day, and most importantly, we want them to go home when they’re done.”

To learn more about Boxley’s commitment to safety, visit our new website (link: ). Also, be sure to follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram

Proving the Value of Safety 

At Boxley, safety is the highest value. Not only is it number one on our list of core beliefs, but it is also the first topic covered at the beginning of every company meeting. Our commitment to safety is not just for our employees and locations, it is for our neighbors and communities as well.

Boxley recently received the 2020 World Class Preventable Vehicle Incident Rate (PVIR) from Summit Materials, our parent company, proving that safety is at the forefront on location and on the road. Our own Wytheville Ready Mix was individually honored by our parent company with the Top 5S Performance. 5S (Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain) is reported by each Summit location to make sure that our facilities operate at optimal safety year-round. These awards build on the safety record that Boxley has maintained since 2019 with zero Lost Time Incidents.

Toolbox talks and safety stand-downs are regular practice at our locations spanning southwestern Virginia to South Carolina. Employees receive a monetary bonus each quarter for their participation in seeing something, saying something, and doing something. In addition, employees who go through the year without a personal injury, receive an extra paid day off for the following calendar year. These incentives encourage employees to think safety in everything they do and report anything that they observe that could be a potential threat in the future.

“Our employees show up with safety in mind. It’s not something we just talk about; it’s practiced every day. It’s everyone’s responsibility. Our low incident and injury record show how important everyone makes it.” – Andy Vassar (Boxley Safety Director)

Stay tuned and follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn for more on how Boxley keeps safety set in stone.

Hats Off to Boxley Drivers 

This National Truck Drivers Week, all of us at Boxley want to give a big shout-out and deep appreciation to our Boxley truck drivers for traveling 2,829,668 miles and achieving ZERO lost time incidents in 2019. Boxley truck drivers are an essential pillar of our business to ensure our quality products make it safely to customers. Our drivers show up every day and deliver on Boxley’s high standard of excellence. Continue reading “Hats Off to Boxley Drivers “