Trucks & Parts of Tampa Inc. announced that it has been awarded OSHA’s Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program Award for the fifth consecutive year. The award signifies Trucks & Parts of Tampa has developed and cultivated a culture of safety awareness with the help of OSHA’s Consultation arm, headquartered at the University of South Florida.
“It’s a win-win for everyone,” says Jim Ulseth, consultant with USF Safety Florida Consultation Program. Since the program’s development in 1970, SHARP, an OSHA Cooperative Program, has assisted employers in avoiding costly OSHA fines and Workers’ Compensation claims by identifying safety and health issues and addressing them before they become a problem.
This is done voluntarily, and the program is free to any small business that requests help from OSHA. “It gives me great pleasure when I work with a proactive company like Trucks & Parts of Tampa,” says Ulseth. “It requires a company with a good safety culture, and Trucks & Parts has demonstrated they have that.”
Blake Hamilton, Trucks & Parts general manager, has been working with the OSHA Team and says he understands the benefits of the SHARP certification. “We know our focus on safety and health has positively impacted our shop’s overall productivity,” Hamilton says.
According to Ulseth, there are only 60 companies in the state of Florida have been awarded SHARP certification. Private companies that can pass the certification process are exempt from programmed OSHA inspections for up to three years.
Bruce Goldenberg, chief administrative officer of Trucks & Parts of Tampa, has been actively involved with the program since they originally contacted OSHA back in 2004. “Keeping our workplace safe for our employees is very important to us – and keeps our workers’ compensation expenses very low as well,” Goldenberg says. “This allows us to pass these savings on to our customers.”
Trucks & Parts of Tampa Inc., a Trucks.com International company, is the nation’s oldest reseller of used garbage trucks.
