Recent safety initiatives put in place at Port Houston are aimed at ensuring a healthy and safe work environment for employees, tenants and visitors alike.

Over the last several years, Port Houston has made significant enhancements in its safety culture and performance. In 2017, the port’s Lost Time Incident Frequency Rate went down from 1.11 to 0.97 (per 200,000 man-hours worked) compared to industry average of 3.5. 

The port’s safety department holds routine meetings with operations and maintenance employees as well as truckers. “It’s important for us to also educate the companies out there working on our behalf,” said Port Houston Safety Lead Matt Chapman. “We all have the same objective – to get the job done right without causing potential incidents.”

Port Houston holds a professional membership with the National Safety Council and the American Society of Safety Engineers.

Port Houston’s responsibilities also include facilitating safety audits and incident investigations. The port is a member of the Lone Star Harbor Safety Committee, an organization that provides a public forum to address Marine Transportation System (MTS) issues, with particular emphasis on navigation safety-related matters involving the ports of Houston, Galveston, Texas City and Freeport. That includes the associated waterways of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and offshore lightering zones.

More than 3,500 observation audits have been completed on port property since 2014. The port also recently adopted smart device use standards for employees to prevent distractions while driving vehicles, operating machinery and walking through parking lots or crosswalks. “This was good timing as the State of Texas changed the regulation on texting while driving in 2017,” added Chapman.

Port Houston continues to make safety a paramount priority.