34 By Mallory Gleich W e’ve all seen them. Those men and women in brown uniforms working night and day to deliver packages to our homes and businesses. It’s hard not to get excited about a UPS person coming to your door. What we don’t see is the importance of safety in the day-to-day experiences of a UPS worker. Sometimes the job can get pretty dangerous. This concern is what sparked Jeremy Giles, a local UPS delivery driver based out of Tempe, to start the UPS Safety Relay. The Relay began as a challenge to UPS associates to make it one week without any accidents or injuries. Giles, knowing that his coworkers were competitive, came up with the relay as a fun, engaging way to compete for safety. “Whether it was football or parking spots or lines at the bank, we’re just competitive,” Giles said. Immediately after the idea came to mind, Giles went to one of his partners, Rod Palmer, and they put together a plan to pass a safety baton from center to center to see how far the baton would travel. Giles had five aluminum batons custom made online with the idea of “passing them around” from team to team, all in the name of safety. “We were doing the same textbook safety demos. We wanted to switch it up, so after we talked to management, we decided to send out the batons,” Palmer said. “I reached out on Twitter; I sent 40 messages to people and six got back to me. Those were the first people to get batons,” Giles said. And these six people were not just UPS drivers. In addition to the drivers, a UPS district safety manager, part-time supervisor and center manager also expressed interested in taking part in the safety relay. And the participants extended well beyond Arizona. “It was kind of neat. One was from Washington, one from Wisconsin, one was in Iowa; also, Kansas and Pennsylvania. We created a web,” Giles said. If a center went a week without any accidents or injuries, their name and location would be etched into one of the batons. The relay started in June of 2018 with five batons and ended in November with three more batons added on to accommodate the large number of etchings. Giles’ safety relay idea was embraced quickly, especially by members of the corporate office UPS’ globe-trotting safety batons started in Arizona AROUND THE WORLD IN 183 DAYS UPS driver Jeremy Giles (5th from left) started the UPS Safety Relay as a fun and engaging way to challenge his associates to work for one full week without accidents or injuries. Trekking up the mountains in Alaska. Taking in all the greenery in the Big Sky Country of Montana. Measuring up at the Cosmodome in Montreal, Canada. Taking a tour of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. On the field of Ohio Stadium in Columbus. Heading toward the Golden Gate in San Francisco. T-Rex can’t reach the safety baton in San Fernando. Getting ready for the game at Petco Park, San Diego. Cooling down in Lake Pleasant. AROUND THE WORLD IN AROUND THE WORLD IN 8 8 3 3 DAYS DAYS On the field of Ohio Stadium in Columbus. Cooling down in Lake Pleasant. On the field of Ohio Stadium in Columbus. Checking out the Washington Monument in our nation’s capital. PHOTOS: UPS OPS CENTERS #UPSSAFETYRELAY

35 and the head of the UPS Worldwide Corporate Health and Safety Commission. “The head guys from corporate health and safety in Georgia came down and presented me and Rod with Louisville baseball bats with our names engraved on them. He told us ‘You never know how many lives have been saved because of the relay’ and it hit me pretty hard,” Giles said. The relay has brought management and hourly employees closer together. “One of the communications coordinators, Becky Biciolis, was putting together a weekly recap of different safety baton videos from around the country, and it just gave me chills. It’s so neat to see other places coming together for the relay,” Palmer said. In the weeks after the first Twitter posting, the popularity of the Safety Relay challenge grew immensely to almost five million impressions driven by the #UPSSafetyRelay hashtag. Giles used Twitter because of the massive amount of people and ideas that flow through the media outlet on a daily basis. “It’s really connected us. I mean, 30 countries and we can go on their Twitter pages and see what they’re doing to prevent a certain kind of accident or injury,” Giles said. “We’ve also gotten ideas for other safety recommendations from groups.” “Out of the blue, Asia called us and wanted to be a part of the relay. It was just amazing,” Palmer said. Giles makes the schedule of where the batons will be shipped to and where they will go next. Each location keeps the baton for a week while challenging themselves to remain accident and injury- free. During that time, the center shows its “safety” progress with pictures and tweets with the #UPSSafetyRelay hashtag. The popularity of the Safety Relay expanded throughout the six months, reaching around the globe to UPS Centers in the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Australia, the Red Square in Russia and 25 other countries. One of the batons traveled 27,000 miles. “For me, one of the coolest runs was in Dermott, Arkansas. It’s a town of 2,700 people. The same week it was in Dermott, it was in Seattle, Washington, with 7.2 million. And what brings us all together is safety,” Giles said. “We ask people to show us where they’re from. ‘Show us what you’re proud of, and what you’re doing for safety.’” Giles has hopes that in March he and Rod will be able to present all of the batons, etched with each location they have passed through, to the head of the management office. We have big plans for 2019,” Palmer said. Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Australia Belgium Canada China Czech Republic Denmark France Germany Greece Hong Kong Hungary Indonesia Ireland Kazakhstan Mexico Norway Netherlands Philippines Poland Portugal Russia Singapore Slovenia Slovakia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom can go on their Twitter pages and see what they’re doing to prevent a certain kind of accident gotten ideas for other safety “For me, one of the coolest runs was in Dermott, same week it was in Dermott, it was in Seattle, Washington, with Giles has hopes that in March he and Rod will be able location they have passed through, to the head of the management office. Visiting the Atomium sculpture in Belgium. Admiring Moscow’s Kremlin from the Red Square in Russia. Visiting the Atomium sculpture in Belgium. Visiting the Atomium sculpture in Belgium. Standing outside the Hungarian Parliament building in Budapest. Hanging ten in Hawaii. The southern-most stop on the tour, Sydney Opera House in Australia. Taking speed seriously at the Nürburgring Grand Prix Race Track in Germany. Taking speed seriously at the Nürburgring Grand Prix Race Track in Germany. Taking speed seriously at the Nürburgring Grand Prix Race Track in Germany. Stopping for a selfie with the team in Portugal. Taking in the beauty at one of Indonesia’s temples. In Germany with the Kölner Dom Cathedral.