The McGraley Company of Springfield, Georgia, has been named the winner of the 2022 Safety Award, presented annually as part of Equipment World’s Contractor of the Year Award program.
Jason and Nicole Rahn started McGraley in 2009 as a landscaping and residential site clearing firm. Today, it is a $13 million to $15 million company with 80 employees, and it has branched out into industrial landfill and site management work, as well as established a dirt supply and hauling business.
Along with being the Safety Award winner, the Rahns are among 12 finalists for the 2022 Contractor of the Year Award. The awards were presented March 18-19 at ceremonies at the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas. Presenting the Safety Award was Mark Teel, global customer solutions manager for construction and industrial products at Caterpillar, a sponsor of the Contractor of the Year program for 22 years.
The Safety Award is presented to a Contractor of the Year finalist who exemplifies outstanding safety practices, has a low experience modification rate and no safety violations by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
McGraley works for several large corporations with stringent safety and environmental rules.
Company inspectors continuously check in on their jobsites to make sure they are following procedures. The company also has its own safety director who visits jobsites throughout the day to ensure workers are being safe.
The company has met ISNetWorld’s stringent reporting requirements, maintaining an A grade, and undergoes regular annual employee training and certification.
Every morning, the company holds jobsite safety meetings and toolbox talks. They rotate among the workers who will lead the day’s meeting. “So there’s buy-in, it’s not just me saying it,” says one company supervisor.
On many of its jobs, the company has to follow strict EPA rules to prevent environmental harm, especially on their landfill projects for fly ash disposal for Georgia Pacific and Georgia Power.
To increase safety, McGraley has installed monitors in their trucks to make sure drivers aren’t speeding on the large industrial jobsites. And if there is an issue, it’s dealt with immediately.
“They do safety meetings daily on our jobsites,” says William Mock, Georgia Pacific plant manager for coastal generation. “They have good site supervision at their jobs. They’re very responsive. Being able to have someone respond in a short order is important when you’re in a production environment like a power plant.”
“They’re great,” says Jamie Deloach, county commissioner for Effingham County, for which the company has performed work. “I’ve never known them to have any accidents. They run a safe operation.”
