I got in a tiff some years back with a center manager about the safety committee. A long time ago, there was no safety committee. If they wanted to talk to the drivers about safety, they brought in ALL of the drivers early for meetings. But UPS soon realized that that kind of safety (making sure ALL drivers understood the issues at hand) was just too damn expensive.
Anyway, years later, when UPS formed their safety committees, our center manager was discussing some safety issue in a morning PCM. I asked why he only wanted the committee members to be safe. He look puzzled and said he didn't understand. I told him that only the committee members were able to spend the time working on safety issues, and the rest of us just got a minute or two of scraps about the issues at hand. How safe was that, I asked him? He got mad/frustrated/flustered, and ended the PCM and said he and I could discuss this one-on-one. "No thanks," I told him, "I get the picture."
Now, I take a lot of pride in being a safe driver. I make it my job to avoid having a picture of my wrecked equipment on the board in the driver's room. But I don't do it for UPS; I do it for me and my family. But as far as safety goes when it comes to UPS management, I'll give them everything I've got. But, they're going to pay for it. I'll answer all of the safety questions, and get them 100% correct. But it will be at time and a half, and I will take my time doing it. I'll demonstrate how to do my job the safe way, and it will also be 100% in the right way. But not on my own time. Never.
Safety only matters to UPS when it costs them money or bad publicity. The safety committee is indicative of this. Safety is no different than anything else UPS does. It is done as cheaply as possible. This is why where I'm at, we have over 300 drivers, and 10 to 12 safety committee members. It is a reactive system, not proactive. Everything they talk to us about is about something that has happened in the past. You tell me, how safe is that?