Burt Brothers Tire & Mechanic

The first steps in formalizing safety procedures

When Brandon Burt, the General Manager at Burt Brothers, first took over the business responsibilities from his dad, there was little visibility into safety processes in the shops. Communication about employee safety and machine repairs between each of the auto shops and the head office was slow, or left out critical information. Brandon saw this as an opportunity not just to make his shops more efficient, but to make safety more of a focal point for the entire company.

Brandon recalls “we were growing a lot, and I didn’t want to be emailing around attachments of 14,000 sheets of inspections and procedures.” So he downloaded SafetyCulture platform and created his critical safety checks in a SafetyCulture template.

After managers in the shops implemented these critical safety checks, Brandon started finding applications for SafetyCulture platform in all kinds of other places. He created more templates for general shop inspections, machine inspections, a new hire safety orientation, and toolbox talks.

“A safety coordinator from each store will talk to the entire shop, take a photo of the agenda, and everyone can sign in which works as an OSHA log of what our safety meetings are about. I can make sure that the toolbox talks are happening and have a way of saving it in my log book instead of antiquated filing systems.”

Expanding audits to all areas of the business

Brandon wanted to digitize more of his business, so he created templates in SafetyCulture platform for employee and manager reviews. These employee action notices act as a reference for non-compliant safety behavior, and allow managers to document that a discussion happened, and what steps the employee needs to take in the future. Managers conduct employee reviews twice a year for each employee, and use the reviews to benchmark progress and encourage employees to grow in the company.  “We can set benchmarks in the company. If employees want to grow or be promoted, they have clear steps to achieve that and we have measurable ways to help them do that with SafetyCulture.

In equipment audits, Brandon has seen considerable savings thanks to preventative maintenance. If a vehicle lift breaks with a car at the top, he needs to call in a rush job with the mechanic to fix it, which ends up being expensive. Now they’re able to identify where little things in the lifts are breaking down so they can be replaced without having to order that rush mechanic. The automatic reports allow him to quickly identify any issues and address them.