South Boston tanker company earns four national safety awards

By Susan Elzey
Special to the Register & Bee
Published: December 3, 2008

Safety was rewarded at R.O. Harrell Inc. on Wednesday when employers treated their employees to a luncheon after the company earned four national safety awards.

The South Boston bulk tanker company achieved these awards after no office employee, maintenance worker or driver suffered any injury throughout 2007 and part of 2008.

“This year was sort of like a slot machine,” Curtis Waskey Jr., the company’s director of safety, said. “We typically win lots of awards, but this is the first time we won all four.” 

The company earned the John A. Arnold Award of Honor from Raffles Insurance Ltd., which is the insurance company’s highest safety award presented for “overall safety achievement.” R.O. Harrell is the only company to have received the award three times in seven years.

American Trucking Associations recognized R.O. Harrell with its First Place Safe Fleet Award in the category of tanker trucks with unlimited employees. 

The company also received a Grand Award for personnel safety in the 5- to 8-million-mile class from National Tank Truck Carriers. Virginia Trucking Association also recognized the company as having the best overall safety and personnel safety record in the category of tanker trucks with more than 3 million miles.

Company owner Rick Harrell, whose grandfather started the family-owned business in 1942, said that he was “thankful and pleased” that the employees had been judged by four national organizations as being best in the state for a one-year period.

“We know you get sick of us preaching safety,” he said to the employees, “but you can’t be too focused when you think about how the little things you can do can affect people’s lives. I take pride in working with people who care about safety.”

After the luncheon, Harrell pointed out some of the safety and fuel efficiency features on the trucks that have contributed to the successful safety record:

• electronic stability control braking to apply braking to different wheels in various road conditions;

• automatic transmission with electronic controls that automatically upshift and downshift gears;

• collision warning systems with cruise control that decrease speed if a possible collision is sensed;

• lane departure warning systems if a driver begins to leave his lane; and

• auxiliary power units to provide heat or air conditioning to drivers at night without the truck engine running.

R.O. Harrell hauls 80 percent of its loads within a 200-mile-radius, yet also trucks to Canada and some cities west of the Mississippi River. Twenty percent of the business is carrying specialized products, such as plastic pellets, pebble lime, fly ash and resin, which are time and temperature sensitive.

“This is not an easy company to go to work for,” Waskey said. “You need good credentials and a good driving record.”