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Some businesses only respond to situations and customer concerns. For cousins Jody and Todd Lapeyrouse, who grew up together in the Chauvin and Grand Caillou areas, Advance Safety Training and Consultants is designed to be proactive by helping clients meet regulation compliancy and head off workplace safety concerns before problems arise.
With background exposure in the offshore oilfields industry, Jody Lapeyrouse recognized an opportunity to offer subtle features that other safety training agencies were not providing. So, he launched his own operation in 2001. In 2007, he called upon Todd, who offered a business background, to help as manager.
During the past 11 years, Advance Safety has gained a reputation for offering service during any shift around the clock, any day of the week, by going to client locations, in addition to providing their own fully-equipped learning center in Houma, and online training materials.
“We put companies into compliance,” Jody said. “We do compliance work for 30 different companies and safety training for more than 100 companies.”
Along with on-location sessions, Advance Safety’s facility features five classrooms where multiple subjects can be taught simultaneously. Instruction is offered with simulation areas where client workers learn about proper tool use on a workbench, fall protection with a specially designed harness frame, rigging procedures, forklift and crane hoist operations and water survival.
“We even have swing rope training with the mockup of the back of a boat,” Todd said, “and hands-on training with large equipment.” A portion of industrial training requires instruction with the actual piece of equipment a worker will be using, making on-site activity a requirement.
“In addition to construction and oil field safety training, we keep all these companies in compliance with regulatory agencies like the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and third party verifiers like ISNetworld and the Petroleum Education Council,” Todd said. “Compliance is our specialty.”
Training sessions range from 1- to 40-hour classes and includes activity from the most basic job related issue to the most advanced industrial concern. Some lessons include resume writing and instruction on completing job applications.
“We also offer online courses, which include your [Occupational Safety and Health Administration],” Todd said. “So if it is an inconvenience for the guys to come here they can be on the boat or in the facility to take the courses there.”
Many companies have difficulty meeting federal and industrial licensing requirements on their own. So Advance Safety designed its business by compiling everything an industrial business might need into a one-stop resource.
“Every company you have in this area is related one way or another to the oil field,” Todd said, “even if you are selling hamburgers.”
The greatest challenge for the Lapeyrouse cousins, in addition to wanting more qualified instructors, is to get new offshore workers to realize they are in a life and death occupational setting every day. “Once you get it into their heads that what they do is extremely dangerous, you see a light bulb go on and they start taking it seriously,” Todd said. “That first five or 10 minutes with a guy is the most challenging.”
In turn, their reward comes in reviewing results. “When we get the quarterly reports that we do on the companies we serve and realize there are no accidents or deaths … that’s our goal,” Todd said. “Every quarter with the reports is challenging and rewarding.”
Three gears in the company logo symbolize safety training, compliance and consultant work, according to Jody. “We do all three, and all three makes one.”
Everything about Advance Safety has a meaning for both the owner and the manager of this business. “Growing up along [Bayou] Grand Caillou no one gave us much opportunity to know what’s out there in the world,” Jody said. “So, I learned from the school of hard knocks and named my company ‘Advance’ to help people in their careers. We want to help people be prepared for work and we even try to place people. We want to help them advance their careers.”
Harnessed to learn about falls, Daniel Martinez gets a lesson on correct methods from training instructor Brian Hanlin. Advance Safety offers companies lessons on compliance with the intention of heading off physical and legal disasters at the workplace.
