Crowley Vice President Named Signal Mutual’s Safety Professional of the Year

(Jacksonville, Fla.; Feb. 22, 2008) – Crowley Maritime Corporation’s number one core value is safety, and the company’s efforts to protect life, property and the environment continue to be recognized by outside organizations.

Most recently, Charlie Nalen, Crowley’s vice president of environmental safety and quality assurance, was named Signal Mutual’s first Safety Professional of the Year. The award honors safety professionals from Signal Mutual insured companies who are instrumental in helping initiate and develop outstanding safety performance within their respective companies.

“The Safety Professional of the Year award was developed and presented for the first time this year,” said Larry Toepper, Signal’s vice president of safety. “It is designed to recognize a safety professional who has shown initiative, innovation and professionalism. The recipient not only shows success within their company, but also shares and promotes safety within their industry and within his or her community.”

In the award ceremony in front of Signal’s board of directors, Nalen and Crowley were congratulated for the success of the company’s safety programs, which have helped decrease claims and losses.

Nalen was also recognized for helping promote an industry safety culture by sharing best practices and safety initiative ideas with other Signal Mutual member companies. Nalen credits the entire Crowley team for making the companywide safety program so successful.

“This is quite an honor and one that all of us at Crowley will share,” Nalen said. “Our corporate leadership team consistently reinforces the company core value of safety – both in words and in action. Our mindset of taking personal responsibility for safety defines our culture of safety and it is strengthened by our membership in Signal who has provided excellent support staff and training materials that address safety performance.”

Crowley created an Environmental, Safety and Quality Assurance management system to ensure operating excellence. The management system is an integration of the ISO 9001 quality assurance program; the International Management Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Control (ISM Code); the American Waterways Operators (AWO) Responsible Carrier Program (RCP) and the ISO 14001 environmental management system. These environmental, safety, and quality assurance programs are combined into a single Operational Excellence Management System. All of these international management system certifications exceed regulatory requirements.

“At Crowley our vision is to be recognized as the global safety leader in the transportation industry,” Nalen said. “Our ongoing safety leadership training includes management and maritime union leaders and all vessel and terminal employees.” 

Crowley’s safety and environmental performance goals include zero injuries; zero damages and zero environmental spills as well as performance objectives such as job safety analyses; near miss reporting; Why Tree incident investigations; safety assessments; and effective safety meetings.

Crowley conducts ongoing employee training and education on Crowley’s safety culture and environmental protection programs, and its partnership with the maritime unions is working on including the safety leadership training in their union training schools.

Established in January 1986, Signal Mutual Indemnity Association is the largest provider of Longshore benefits in the United States and boasts over 200 member companies.

Jacksonville-based Crowley Maritime Corporation, founded in San Francisco in 1892, is a privately held family and employee-owned company that provides diversified transportation and logistics services in domestic and international markets by means of six operating lines of business: Puerto Rico/Caribbean Liner Services, Latin America Liner Services, Logistics Services, Petroleum Services, Marine Services and Technical Services. Offered within these operating lines of business are the following services: liner container shipping, logistics, contract towing and transportation; ship assist and escort; energy support; salvage and emergency response; vessel management; vessel construction and naval architecture; government services, and petroleum and chemical transportation, distribution and sales. Additional information about Crowley its subsidiaries and business units may be found on the Internet at www.crowley.com.

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