The Director, Safety Assurance position includes a portfolio of responsibilities centered around leading the development and implementation of Summit LLC's industry-leading Safety Management System (SMS) and Emergency Preparedness program. Specifically, the Director of Safety Assurance's SMS responsibilities encompass performing safety oversight to verify compliance with federal and state requirements for the safe transportation of students, assisting the company with Department of Transportation (DOT) entity management, driving effective reporting and investigation of safety events, and monitoring of risk mitigating action plans to assure completion, measure effectiveness, and drive adjustments that result in continuous improvement. The Director of Safety Assurance's Emergency Preparedness responsibilities encompass maintaining the company's emergency response plan, performing risk assessments to determine each location's level of vulnerability, working across departments and local teams to ensure readiness, and establishing a weather monitoring capability to enable early warning notifications and proactive emergency management. The outcome of an effective Safety Assurance function is the systematic reduction in safety events, injuries, and liability exposure.
Position Responsibilities Include:
• Partner with operations personnel to implement and manage a proactive, behavior-based approach to DOT compliance with an emphasis on personal responsibility, safety event prevention and management systems approach.
• Ensure Summit brand operating authority's and associated BASIC information is accurate; recommend action plans when improvement/correction is needed.
• Monitor compliance of operations to ensure all personnel comply with company policies and procedures, as well as DOT regulatory compliance. Includes, but not limited to, speeding, cell phone, and 3-in-24 violations.
• Analyze and validate the company's internal DOT accident register against the Federal Safety Measurement System register, submitting Data Q challenges as appropriate.
• Review the company's online driver qualification file (DQF) system (Beacon Insight) compliance as it relates to DOT, State regulations and company policy; providing training and follow-up where process improvements are identified.
• Liaise with the drug and alcohol third-party administrator (TPA), ensuring accurate MIS reporting and compliance; test type, safety letter of concern follow-up, SAP documents (when applicable), and positive notifications.
• Manage the Training Provider Registry (TPR), registering in locations and assisting field teams with entry verification.
• Perform routine management of driver enrollment in license monitoring system (SuperVision).
• Identify and inform management of compliance issues, safety risks, and improvement opportunities through daily, weekly and monthly audits.
• Serve as the organization's primary liaison with regulatory agencies during inspections, audits, and investigations.
• Develop and implement safety reporting and investigation capabilities that drive robust root cause analyses as well as corrective and preventive actions that effectively mitigate the risk of recurrence.
• Develop and implement an internal compliance audit function that assesses the effectiveness of SMS implementation at Customer Service Centers (CSCs) with findings that inform the safety risk management process.
• Monitor and analyze Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) scores, violations, inspection trends, and other key safety indicators.
• Develop and implement an effective Emergency Preparedness Program that ensures the safety of people, property, and assets when emergencies occur in various parts of the country.
Position Requirements Include:
• BA/BS in Business, Industrial Safety, Engineering or equivalent experience.
• 5 years of comprehensive safety or loss control experience in transportation.
• Experience networking/partnering with Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and other governmental agencies.
• Knowledge of DOT regulations and applicability to passenger transportation.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail with a high sense of urgency, initiative and proactive planning.
• Well-developed communication, interpersonal, and training skills.
• Strong computer and analytical skills.
