Published January 14th, 2021 by Brian Burns
- We met our Goal Zero Standard – Zero Injuries, Zero fines, Zero Compliance Actions, Zero Insurance Claims
- WTS was honored by the ACC as the Responsible Care Partner Company of the Year for an unprecedented 6th time. We also received two Waste Minimization awards – one in conjunction with Lanxess Perth Amboy and another as a testament to our Sustainable Solutions Platform. We received formal recognition for the awards during ACC’s virtual Responsible Care conference in May.
- WTS underwent and passed our Recertification Audit on 09/15 and 09/16. There were no minor or major non-conformances. This was the 5th certification audit we have undergone since 2008 and of course, the first conducted virtually. The audit was conducted under the new 2019 RCMS technical specifications. We have never received a minor or major non-conformance in any of our certification audits
- To date, we have closed 3 of our original 2020 RCMS Objectives. We also closed our final open 2019 Objective in 2020, to Develop a WTS Sustainability Report. We also opened a new Objective in 2020 to monitor/track steps we have taken as a company in regards to the Covid-19 Pandemic.
- Objectives Closed:
- Investigate E-Signature Process for Profiles/Recert
- Implementing SMM Task Force into WTS
- Enhancement of WTS Social Media Relaunch/Digital Marketing Program -Including Web Site Refresh
- Objectives Closed:
- Corrective Actions – With our new emphasis on utilizing our Corrective Action program as an avenue for Opportunity’s for Improvement, we set another record with 93 CAR’s submitted during 2020 (Previous high was last year with 78). Issues dealt with through our Corrective Action Program include: service or quality issues, LMWTS reporting improvements and updates, maintenance of supplier records, finding recycling/reuse solutions; managing our response to the Covid-19 pandemic and presenting our Pandemic Preparedness Plan to clients, transition of activities managed by former employees, correcting issues uncovered in our internal RCMS audit, etc.
- RCMS System – In 2020 we amended 18 points in our RCMS documentation to improve and update our RCMS and to meet the requirements of the new 2019 Responsible Care Management System Technical Specifications. The 2019 RCMS Annual Report and Quarterly RCMS Reports were distributed internally. The required metrics from 2019 were submitted to ACC. The 2019 WTS RCMS employee of the year was awarded to James Moulds. Congratulations again to James and all of the nominees. Taylor Page once again conducted an all-encompassing Internal Audit of our RCMS. Taylor and Tom Dobmeier collaborated on the H&S internal audit and James Moulds conducted the Regulatory Internal Audit. All of the Internal Audit’s were conducted virtually. Our Internal Audit process is best in class, thanks to all of them. We conducted our annual Client Satisfaction Survey. As appropriate, CARS have been/will be issued to address specific client concerns raised. We also conducted our annual Supplier Survey. Responses are being reviewed and monitored.
7. Suppliers – In 2020 we added 31 new suppliers to our Approved Supplier program. We also moved 41 suppliers from either our Approved or Requested Listing to Inactive. Current Approved Suppler Roster stands at 493 (471 at the end of 2019). All are managed through our RCMS. Tom Dobmeier completed Surveillance Reviews of all of our TSDR’s in 2020, we monitored all of interstate carriers through our subscription to Carrier 411 and performed safety reviews on all of our intrastate carriers. Due to the pandemic, we were restricted in our physical reviews of TSDF’s. Adapting to the situation, we developed a Remote Review Survey and received results from many of the TSDF’s. It appears, at this time, that this will be the path forward for 2021 Facility Reviews as well.
8. Training – In 2020, we welcomed Sara Kumpf to the TSR team; Brian D’Souza to the Business Development team; James Lotterer to the Critical Support team and Franco Strangis as our new CFO with all successfully completing their required RCMS training. Required IATA training was conducted virtually on 04/02/20. Most importantly, our annual regulatory training was conducted virtually over three days in October.
