Positive Safety Outcomes of Clear Signal for Action Program at Union Pacific Yard Operations
Union Pacific Railroad (UP), the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), and the United Transportation Union (UTU) are collaborating with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Human Factors Research and Development (R&D) Program to conduct a Clear Signal for Action (CSA) demonstration pilot. CSA is a risk reduction process that combines behavior-based safety (BBS), continuous improvement, and safety leadership. The goal of this project is to determine whether CSA can improve safety and safety culture in the railroad industry as it has in other industries. The project involves peer-to-peer observations of yard-crew workers from UP’s Livonia Service Unit (LVSU), who provide each other with confidential, constructive coaching feedback to reduce the probability of injuries, derailments, and other incidents. In addition, behavioral observation and interview data, compiled by peers are used to identify systemic factors and implement corrective actions at the systems level to lower the risk of derailments and accidents. Corrective actions to address behavioral issues are also implemented. Training in how to effectively support the process is also provided for managers. With sponsorship from FRA, Behavioral Science Technology (BST), Inc. is instructing and advising in the implementation of the CSA intervention, titled Safety Through Employees Exercising Leadership (STEEL), at LVSU. In addition to the CSA implementation, FRA is sponsoring a lessons-learned team (LLT) to examine what it takes to implement CSA successfully, the impact of CSA on safety and safety culture, and what factors are needed to sustain CSA in the long term. An early LLT activity involved meeting with project stakeholders to develop a logic model that describes how the CSA method works and what results are expected from it. Data collected thus far indicate that the CSA implementation at LVSU has gotten off to an encouraging start. Outcomes observed include: strong labor and management commitment, 75 identified barriers to safety removed, expansion to other yards, and improved safety communications between management and labor. Most of the efforts to date have focused on the Avondale terminal. A joint BLET-UTU steering committee developed and validated a checklist of 18 safety practices to be tracked. More than 140 employees have received training on conducting peer-to-peer observation-feedback sessions, and over 2,100 such sessions have taken place. Key managers have also been trained in how to effectively support the CSA process. During interviews and project meetings, Avondale employees indicated that improvements have occurred since the CSA process was implemented. In addition, because of a successful labor-management partnership, the implementation is expanding to other terminals in the service unit.
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- Record URL:
- Publication Date: 2008-6
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Web
- Features: Figures;
- Pagination: 4p
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Serial:
- FRA Research Results
- Issue Number: RR08-09
- Publisher: Federal Railroad Administration
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Behavior; Culture (Social sciences); Labor relations; Occupational safety; Safety; Safety management; Training; Yard operations
- Identifier Terms: Union Pacific Railroad
- Uncontrolled Terms: Risk reduction
- Subject Areas: Education and Training; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01106136
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: RR08-09
- Files: NTL, TRIS
- Created Date: Aug 4 2008 4:19PM