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By Megan Wolfarth, Training and Safety Director

We all know that texting while driving is a dangerous habit, but here are some sobering numbers for you. When people text while driving, the likelihood of an accident is 23 times greater than that for people who are not texting. The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute conducted research with long haul trucks by putting video cameras into their cabs for 18 months.

It was shown that each time people text while driving, they are looking away from the road for about five seconds. That may not seem like a lot of time, but a vehicle traveling at average highway speeds (50 mph or greater) can travel more than 100 yards in those short five seconds. That's like driving the length of a football field without looking where you are going.

Currently, only 14 states have laws banning texting while driving, and because no “long term” studies have been done, it may be a while before we see a ban in our area. On the other hand, it is against company policy to talk or text on your phone while driving.

Be safe out there!

• Carmen Calabrese (July 23) – Carmen got a gold star from a customer in Gibsonia. The job supervisor, Terry, said that Carmen is doing a great job! This is a job that we took over from another company because the customer was unhappy with their service. It's good to know our customers are being taken care of. This (hopefully!) will lead to good recommendations and referrals to other supervisors and job sites.
• John Malanchak (July 27) – John got a gold star from a customer in Ford City. While doing a septic on a Saturday, John made sure everything was in working order before he left the site. The customer said that he would definitely order from us again!
• Nikki Hogue (July 31) – Nikki got a gold star from a South Hills customer. He said that after one of his toilets was damaged with graffiti that Nikki really took care of him and he appreciated that. Thanks, Nikki! It's important to have a good customer service department and you're doing a great job!
• John Haley (August 4) – John got a gold star from a customer in Kittanning. She ordered a weekend flushing toilet and when she called for a billing question, she made it a point to mention how nice her delivery and pick-up driver (John) was. It's nice when customers go out of their way to compliment quality work!

Remember: Word of mouth is the best form of advertisement, and bad news travels much faster than good news. If someone has a horrible experience because a driver was on site and didn't get out of the truck to investigate the problem or just didn't give a quality service, the customer remembers the quality (or lack thereof) of service when he or she goes to order a toilet for the next job!