Construction products distribution company CH Bull Company of San Francisco and Sacramento, Calif., takes a different approach to safety than most companies do.
President and CEO Andy Bull says his company has evolved to fill customer needs over the years since his grandfather started the business in 1930. Safety started to come to the forefront of Bull's business in 1989, when the state of California mandated safety meetings for all companies including distributors, contractors, industrial manufacturing, and municipalities. Bull, an outside salesman at the time, started to hear customers say, "We need help," and he reacted.
"I started calling my manufacturers for safety information on ladders, fall protection, confined spaces, hand tools, power tools and so on. Then I put together a series of tailgate safety meetings so we could add value for our customers instead of just selling them stuff," Bull explains. "While other companies were just dropping catalogs off to their customers and telling them to call when they need safety equipment, I knew they didn't need just stuff, they needed solutions."
Today CH Bull's Safety Solutions Division offers not only fall protection and fall restraint products for customers in different industries including the construction trades, but to other customers who have needs that the normal chains of distribution pass over like churches and theaters. While listening to customers talk about problems, CH Bull is able to offer a risk assessment and site evaluation, and then offer a designed and sometime engineered solution that was not offered in any of the catalogs. Taking things a step further for their customers CH Bull can offer a turnkey installation as a licensed contractor, offer training and in many cases help them write out their OSHA compliance documentation.
Ladder safety
CH Bull's focus on fall protection safety starts with ladders. Bull says ladders seem like a simple product, but there's a need out there for people to be educated in using them. The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports annually more than 100,000 people are treated for ladder-fall injuries, and each year there are 300 ladder-related deaths. And Ladders are No. 6 on OSHA's 2009 Top 10 Most Cited Violations list. Bull says he can start with ladder safety because almost every one uses ladders in the work place or at home, then he can look at a company's other exposures for falls and progress into fall protection solutions.
Bull teaches on average eight ladder safety classes a month. If a contractor calls the store to order a ladder, CH Bull's inside sales team will let the customer know Bull is available to teach a ladder safety class. Bull also teaches ladder safety through workman's comp insurers, government agencies, wastewater treatment plants, and often presents at safety expos and OSHA 10-hour safety training. Bull's safety training is free, educational, and lacks any sales pitch for certain brands or products. Training is a valuable tool for CH Bull. "I never lose sight of the fact that I'm a sales person," Bull says. "Teaching puts me in front of hundreds of companies that we can sell to."
Bull developed his ladder safety course through information from ladder manufacturers and research he has done on his own. "I don't just say ‘don't step here,' I tell them why they shouldn't step there," he says.