Lakeville transit company recognized for safety
Schmitty and Sons receives Premier Partner Award from SFM Mutual Insurance
by Jessica Harper
Dakota county Tribune
Schmitty and Sons, a bus service contractor based in Lakeville, recently earned the Premier Partner Award for performance in worker compensation from Bloomington-based SFM Mutual Insurance Company.
SFM Mutual is Minnesota’s largest workers’ compensation insurer and presents the award annually to five employers among its 13,000 Midwest employers.
Schmitty and Sons, which has been in business since 1952, is the only company in the transportation industry to win the award.
“We are very pleased to receive this award,” Schmitty and Sons President and Owner Dan Schmitt. “It’s a team effort in which we are looking at different aspects of safety all the time. It affirms the idea of being proactive.”
Schmitty and Sons offers numerous programs to decrease workplace accidents and injuries. Its Injury Prevention Program, for instance, requires all employees to attend regular A Workplace Accident and Injury Reduction meeting to review safety rules, perform monthly job site safety inspections, complete monthly fleet and facilities compliance checklists and participate in bi-monthly safety meetings to discuss incident prevention.
“Schmitty and Sons excels all the way around in their injury programs,” SFM Mutual spokesperson Mark Ladwig said. “If there is an injury, they do a very nice job helping people get back to work.”
The company’s Return-to-Work Program provides employees with transitional tasks to complete when injured and helps to control workers’ compensation costs. It also minimizes the impact work-related injuries have on employees by helping them return to work as soon as possible.
The company, which contracts for the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority, and Shakopee and Prior Lake schools, also offers a Right-to-Know Program and a Hearing Conservation Program.
E-mail Jessica Harper is at:
jessica.harper@ecm-inc.com





