Designing educational material for Nova Scotia Trucking Safety Association (NSTSA) was truly a rewarding experience. Directed to save lives and reduce the toll of workplace injuries, NSTSA coordinates and provides quality health and safety programs to its members through training, certification and partnerships with industry, clients and government. When they engaged us to develop and deliver its course for Load Securement, we jumped at the opportunity. Once we found our creative direction, we knew we had the right vehicle to deliver the course in an engaging and fun manner.
There is a right way to do things, and there is a wrong way to do things. The right way is honest, on the level, truthful, conscientious, sincere and FRANK. The wrong way is dishonest, unscrupulous, fraudulent, corrupt or SHIFTY.
Meet Frank. Frank is professional, morally correct and principled. When you secure a load the right way, you do it properly and safely because there is no room for error on the road. Public safety, driver safety and damage-free freight is what Frank wants.
Meet Shifty. Shifty takes shortcuts, is unethical, unprincipled, underhanded, and lazy. When you secure a load the wrong way, loads can shift and result in claims, incidents, accidents, downtime, loss of product, loss of customers, and potentially, loss of life.
Through the Adventures of Frank and Shifty, students learn about the importance of proper cargo securement. The modules, lessons and workbooks illustrate the proper and improper ways of securing cargo through the actions of Frank and Shifty, and the pitfalls of being lazy, and taking shortcuts as Shifty does. Students quickly understand that it never ends well for Shifty. Our key message - Don’t be Shifty with load securement!