< back

SCHMIDT Group employee winner at the German innovation contest
“Geistesblitz - Gesund und Sicher 2003”

SCHMIDT Group employee Heinz-Juergen Effern (in the picture middle) was the winner of the 2003 innovation contest of the vehicle owner’s professional association in Germany.

Heinz-Juergen Effern, who is the director of the SCHMIDT subsidiary at Huerth -Knapsack near Cologne, has developed an operational training programme which precisely meets the premises of industrial health and safety standards.

For this purpose, he developed a special training programme for SCHMIDT employees, which also focuses on stress and traffic situation management next to the conventional health and safety standards while loading/unloading and vehicle operation processes.

Effern also developed a detailed performance for his conception: SCHMIDT Group and subcontractor drivers receive training units during the waiting time for their road tankers or tank containers to be cleaned. Each training unit provides instructions regarding one subject and has a duration of approx. 20 minutes. This training conception has several advantages: drivers receive short and concentrated information easy to assimilate, costly and expensive weekend training courses (which usually take place in the drivers’ spare time) can be by-passed and, moreover, there is no excuse for not participating due to a lack of time.

A special database at the Heilbronn headquarter provides latest information on the completion of training units for each SCHMIDT Group employee and subcontractor driver.

As a control measure, the knowledge of all employees is tested with a particular questionnaire once a year. If the knowledge should be incomplete, the necessary training units have to be repeated.