SEEM-Safe Efficient Ethical Moral
Safe and efficient refers to the driver training you receive for the maintenance and the operation of it, but they alone don’t make you a professional. These two things are often related more to the “Skills” required to be a good driver than the mindset, but they’re still an important part of becoming a professional.
Safe and efficient must work in conjunction with ethics and morals. Ethics and morals are the basis for having the right attitude to be consistently prudent with the skills, as well as the decisions made behind the wheel. Safe and efficient teach you to do the right things at the right time. Ethics and morals ensure you to do them for the right reasons. Remember you aren’t the only one out there.
The way it once was
Many people feel the trucking industry is changing and you’ll hear reference to the new “Breed” of driver out there today. There is a lower level of courtesy and consideration in trucking and driving in general. There was more of a comradery and respect for one another, because there was an unwritten “Code of Ethics” that many drivers held in the highest regard. We said that holding something in very high regard makes it a virtue.
Ethics and morals don’t appear in any truck driver job description. Working off road in the oil and gas industry and on the ice roads, I’ve accumulated well over 100 safety tickets. Sadly, not a single one teaches you how to drive like a true professional. This picture should give you an example of how many active tickets I have at any one time.
SEEM-Safe Efficient Ethical Moral is a personal safe driving program I developed for myself. These are my current safety courses and orientations required for my job.
What caused these changes is a problem that exists with society as a whole and not just with the trucking industry. We live in a world where our focus is often on teaching about rules and regulations instead of teaching people how to think.
When a problem is identified, it’s reported to the appropriate authorities who begin working on a set of rules or regulations to deal with it. We don’t need more rules and regulations in the trucking industry. We just need to teach drivers how to think in moral and ethical ways. We need people to be part of the solution, not the problem.
