A version of this essay, written by our Senior Manager of Safety, Compliance, and Regulatory Affairs, Kenneth Kern, was originally published in the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s Guardian Magazine.

Safety Always – it’s one of DCLI’s Core Values and is at the forefront of everything I do as the company’s Senior Manager of Safety and Regulatory Affairs .

As the largest provider or marine, domestic, and specialty chassis equipment to the U.S. intermodal industry, our focus on safety is one of the key factors driving the continual enhancements we have made in our fleet. We have invested more than $2 billion to upgrade our equipment since our founding – $1 billion of that in the past two years alone. These dollars have been invested in a variety of safety-enhancing initiatives: from purchasing brand-new, reliable chassis to converting equipment from bias-ply tires to radials that enhance performance and reduce failures to replacing incandescent lights with LEDs for better chassis visibility when they’re on the road. These investments have delivered real, measurable improvements that make our chassis safer for our motor carrier customers and for the motoring public we are sharing the road with.

We have also upgraded our technology processes to promote safety. A recent change we made was moving to IANA’s Driver Vehicle Inspection Reporting (DVIR) system, streamlining the process by which drivers using our chassis report defects identified in their post-trip inspections. Submitting these reports directly through IANA allows us to more quickly identify units requiring our attention so they can be removed from service and repaired. Keeping defective chassis off the street is critical to safely operating our business and our hard work is paying off. As our chief operating officer, Mike Wells, has said, “At DCLI, safety is paramount and we have the results to prove it. In the past year, we achieved an industry-leading SAFER out-of-service rating of 3%, which is well below that of our competitors and a metric we are constantly working to improve.”

While investing in our equipment and keeping chassis units on the street in good repair is important for safety, probably the most important way we drive safety is by working hand-in-hand with our motor carrier customers. They are, after all, the ones who have hands-on experience with our equipment and benefit the most from having access to safe, reliable, well-maintained chassis. Our goal is to deliver a great trucker experience, and we do that through many channels. We promote messages and information about safety via our social media channels to our thousands of followers. We partner with safety organizations like the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) and National Safety Council (NCS). And we always ensure that our own employees have the proper training, information, and personal protective equipment to stay safe while they’re performing their jobs, which often interface with our motor carrier customers.

Our work in all of these areas ultimately drives highway safety and higher quality chassis for use in serving the supply chain’s needs.  And it ensures that Safety Always is more than just a motto – it’s a statement of fact that I and all of us at DCLI can stand behind.