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Strategic Plan

TRANSCAER® Mission

TRANSCAER® Background
TRANSCAER® Strengths and Opportunities
National TRANSCAER® Task Group Strategic Plan

To improve community awareness of and emergency preparedness for hazardous materials in transportation.

TRANSCAER® Background

TRANSCAER® is an interindustry outreach program that focuses on assisting communities, which do not host a major chemical facility but do include major transportation routes, prepare for and respond to a possible transportation incident. The National TRANSCAER® Task Group (NTTG) manages the program, while regional and state TRANSCAER® coordinators implement TRANSCAER® in their area.

NTTG Mission: To provide leadership at the National level, and resources and assistance to Regional Coordinators and State Teams.

At the regional and state level, TRANSCAER® representatives work to implement the following TRANSCAER® steps:

Establish contact with the Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPC)/Communities.
Review existing emergency response plans with LEPC/Community.
Assist the LEPC/Community to establish a transportation advisory group.
Assist the LEPC/Community to implement a transportation flow study.
Assist in revising the emergency response plan to incorporate flow study results.
Assist in revising emergency response resource and training needs.
Participate in exercises to test the plan.
Establish an ongoing dialogue with local officials, response agencies and the public.
Assess the effectiveness of the overall program.

TRANSCAER® Strengths and Opportunities

Strengths

The successful amalgamation of all those involved in the manufacture, transportation, and response of hazardous materials.
The successful launching of Phase 1 of the Regional Approach. Implemented in 1994, this effort seeks to place a TRANSCAER® program in every state. Currently, 31 states have active and/or progressing programs. The level of chemical manufacturing presence in a state usually dictates the level of TRANSCAER® activity—in areas where there is a large chemical manufacturing presence, a high level of TRANSCAER® activity is realized.
An ever-growing recognition of the TRANSCAER® initiative by our target audience. This has been accomplished through large events such as the 1993, 1994 and 1999 Whistle Stop Tours, press releases, trade publication articles, a high volume of public speaking engagements, and the implementation of the nine step TRANSCAER® process.
The ability to foster and encourage large big-top events. Examples of this are the Whistle-Stop Tours and TRANSCAER® workshops.

Opportunities

Mergers and acquisitions within the chemical and transportation industries have led to a decrease of sweat equity resources, both at the national and regional levels. The challenge is to maintain the same level of activity, and perhaps even increase activity, with a limited number of people actively participating in the program.
Implementing TRANSCAER® at the regional level is most important to the success of TRANSCAER®. To date, the success of the regional approach has been reliant on two factors: the chemical industry volume in the state, and the state coordinator's leadership ability. To expand the TRANSCAER® effort, it will be necessary to effectively manage resources against a defined goal.
Communication between the state, regional and national level has been limited. Utilizing available technology and the TRANSCAER® organization structure to their full capacity is needed to increase information flow between the three bodies.
Communication and outreach to community representatives could also be strengthened.
Better coordination between groups performing TRANSCAER® -type activities to reduce duplication of effort. This includes between both current TRANSCAER® sponsors and non-sponsors.

National TRANSCAER® Task Group Strategic Plan

The National TRANSCAER® Task Group's mission: To provide leadership at the National level, and resources and assistance to Regional Coordinators and State Teams.

To address the opportunities mentioned above, the National TRANSCAER® Task Group will do the following:

Manage available resources effectively and efficiently
Currently, the national TRANSCAER® effort is one of the largest nationwide mutual assistance efforts. By utilizing a shared implementation approach, TRANSCAERÒ allows companies to coordinate and partner to leverage resources. Operating in this manner has generated very active TRANSCAER® programs in states where there is a chemical manufacturing industry presence, and less active programs in areas where there is not chemical industry presence. To better manage available resources, TRANSCAER® will:
- Create and maintain a website and database which include TRANSCAER® resources, activities and contacts.
- Prioritize US counties based on hazmat emergency preparedness necessity and activities and allocate resources against this prioritization.
Communicate TRANSCAER® resources, activities and direction to key stakeholders
In addition to TRANSCAER®, there are other groups and organizations that provide similar services and work with communities in the same manner. In order to leverage these activities, TRANSCAER® will:
- Work with other groups and organizations that share a similar goal with TRANSCAER®.
- Ensure that all TRANSCAER® participants and stakeholders are aware of TRANSCAER® activities, resources, and necessity.
Utilize the resources of TRANSCAER® sponsors
Take full advantage of the expertise and resources that TRANSCAER® sponsor companies employ.
- Working with current sponsors, redefine the expectations of TRANSCAER® sponsors.
- Secure new sponsorships where appropriate.
Support the regional approach
TRANSCAER®'s success relies significantly on the ability of state TRANSCAER® representatives to provide emergency preparedness assistance to communities along hazmat routes. To provide state coordinators with the tools they need, TRANSCAER® will:
- Hold a TRANSCAER® workshop to allow for information sharing between TRANSCAER® representatives and provide an avenue for the NTTG to communicate TRANSCAER®'s strategic direction and available resources.
- Maintain and update TRANSCAER® publications.
Measure the effectiveness of TRANSCAER®
Measuring progress is a key step in obtaining success. To do this, TRANSCAER® will:
- Develop performance measures to assess the impact TRANSCAER® has on communities and help communicate the value of TRANSCAER® to key stakeholders.