A 12-POINT PROGRAM TO IMPROVE RAILROAD TRAINING, SAFETY
[United Transportation Union, 8-22-05]
When it comes to working on the railroad, experienced train and engine service employees know how to get the job done efficiently and safely.
It is a savvy employer who taps into that knowledge. When employees feel they are part of a team that includes management, workplace productivity improves and accidents decline.
Those experienced train and engine service employees can also be at the core of an effective training program.
This is especially crucial to understand given the demographics of the freight railroad industry. With a relatively older and experienced workforce, a sudden and sharp increase in retirements owing to liberalized retirement benefits, and a growing demand for rail service, carriers are hiring thousands of new train and engine service employees.
Given the unforgiving nature of the railroad environment, even momentary lapses in attention or confusion as to proper operating procedures can lead to serious accidents and injuries - and fatalities.
Too often, current training programs fail to provide new hires with the day-to-day knowledge and job experience needed to perform the duties and responsibilities of the craft. This problem is recognized by the new employees themselves, by their more experienced peers who must depend upon them for their own safety, by field managers and even the Federal Railroad Administration.
The UTU has been documenting how many existing training programs lack skill-based evaluations to determine if the employee is ready to be released into the workforce.
Training programs based upon a fixed number of hours of training, with no measuring stick to determine whether the trainees are competent, are costly accidents waiting to happen.
Effective training programs should place emphasis on understanding and applying rules in the territory and situations an employee will actually work.
Although carrier training programs have been static, railroads have been introducing new and more complicated technology that must be mastered - and this by fewer employees performing more complex tasks. It is not uncommon for new hires to suffer information overload.
This can be especially dangerous when a switchman is promoted to remote control operator, or a trainman is promoted to engineer. Indeed, the FRA is beginning to scrutinize today's accelerated path by which brakeman/helpers advance to conductor/foreman to RCL operator to locomotive engineer.
The FRA is finding that accelerated promotion does not provide the work experience necessary to develop proficiency in crafts, meaning many employees lack a sound railroading base to formulate their decisions. The carriers' post-training philosophy of "learn as you go" is a recipe for disaster.
The UTU believes that world-class training programs must link classroom training to actual field application so that the day-to-day application of rules makes sense to trainees. To read about something that is a foreign concept is hardly as effective as actually witnessing and experiencing the day-to-day application.
As an example, RCL training programs do not reflect the most demanding service of the RCL assignments operated. Airbrake training is limited to a handful of cars in the yard, but the actual use of airbrakes is often in main track territory on large cuts of cars - and often on a grade. The current airbrake training programs do not include the doubling-up of large road trains, or the use of RCL for hours-of-service relief, which entails horsepower ratings four and five times that experienced in training - and often on high-tonnage and lengthy trains that were not part of the training curriculum.
Additionally, RCL training does not continue beyond the initial training program. Working conditions at terminals change by season. For example, an RCL operator trained in the spring may not be prepared to handle the heavy tonnage trains that appear in the fall. A change in traffic routing or operations may change what is considered the most demanding service at a location.
Nor do existing training programs provide for a mechanism to test the knowledge and teaching skills of the trainers. In the case of outside contractors, the trainers frequently are not familiar with local procedures and working conditions. Many trainers lack actual work experience in the area in which they train new hires, or have been retired or out of the industry for years, meaning they are not intimately familiar with today's technologically advanced railroad industry.
As a result, the number of RCL accidents and incidents actually has been rising although injuries have been declining. The FRA has concluded that in many instances, employees are unable to relate to the actual situations they face in the workplace.
Improved training, that incorporates mentors from the actual workforce, is part of the solution. So are refresher courses aimed at veteran employees, such as those flowing back from engine to ground service. Effective training should be career-long and not a one-time event at the time of hiring.
Following are recommendations of the UTU for more effective training programs tailored not simply for the new hire, but which also provide remedial training and familiarization for all operating employees. These programs should be a cooperative effort, including the selection and evaluation of instructors, mentors and trainers:
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