The Inter-Mountain photo by Brooke Hinzman The UPS center located on the Beverly Five-lane recently celebrated its achievement of traveling 100 miles accident-free.

The Inter-Mountain photo by Brooke Hinzman
The UPS center located on the Beverly Five-lane recently celebrated its achievement of traveling 100 miles accident-free.

ELKINS — The Elkins UPS location recently celebrated one million miles of safe driving.

“What safe miles means is having zero accidents on roads. So, we’ve driven a over a million miles with zero accidents on road,” said Zack Watson.

Circle of Honor driver Brian Skidmore, who has worked at the center for 31 years and been a safe driver for 27 years, stated that he’s feeling “really good” about this major accomplishment.

According to driver Ronnie Bright, the Elkins center has only hit this milestone one other time in his 36 years of working at the location and his 32 years of being an accident-free driver.

“It’s challenging. UPS is very challenging,” said Bright.

“There’s something that occurs everyday that could change that million miles, but we just luckily get through it.”

Bright attributed the accomplishment to following the safety methods taught to UPS drivers.

“Everyday, we follow our methods. It’s something you don’t think about; it’s just something you do everyday.”

“You create awareness all day long, and it’s how we’re taught,” he said.

Watson added that the methods instilled into the drivers really work.

“You see that through the million miles and through drivers,” he said. “Right now we’re at 40 drivers.”

Watson said that the center plans on remaining safe for the next million miles by following the methods that UPS teaches– taking it one day at a time and being safe.

“The biggest thing that we always preach to the drivers is that the number one goal is to make it home safe everyday; that’s their most important stop. The most important stop is the last stop when they get home to their families,” said Watson.

“If you have that mindset every single day, that will get you through to that million miles– taking it day by day,” he added.

Bright added that PCMs help to create an awareness in the drivers every morning.

“If something occurs in the district that we need to be aware of– dog bite, backing accident, intersection that is brought to your attention– it’s something to instill into your mind before you leave. It creates awareness,” he said.

“I think that UPS has continually grown over the years with the technology to best satisfy our customers’ needs, and that’s the biggest reason I’ve stayed here.”