A commitment to safety has long been a hallmark of community transportation programs. This commitment extends both to the riding public and to the women and men who work in the nation’s community transportation systems.

What is THE PURPOSE OF THE CSSO program?

The Certified Safety and Security Officer (CSSO) program is designed to help personnel build the transportation organization, enhance the professionalism of the internal team, safely serve its customers, fulfill its responsibilities in assisting in community preparedness, identify internal safety and security strengths and weaknesses and reduce system exposure to liability.

To become qualified as a CSSO an Individual will learn to:

• Take the CSSO Certification exam
• Identify system strengths
• Identify areas for improvement, and
• Develop safety, security and emergency preparedness programs

The values of this program are reflected in its commitment to:

• Providing non-judgmental, confidential feedback,
• Giving positive reinforcement where appropriate, and
• Being constructive, and not punitive, in nature.
• The program is designed to help Officers build the transportation organization, enhance the professionalism of its internal team, safely serve its customers, fulfill its responsibilities in assisting in community emergency preparedness, identify internal safety and security strength and weaknesses, and reduce system exposure to liability.

What is covered in the training?

The course starts with the basics of developing a safety culture in a transit organization. This culture is developed through the principles of what is called “Safety Management Systems (SMS).” SMS can be looked on as a businesslike approach to safety. It is a systematic, explicit and comprehensive process for managing safety risks. As with all management systems, a safety management system provides for goal setting, planning, and measuring performance. Once in place, a safety management system becomes part of the culture, the way people do their jobs.

The CSSO training leads the Individual through the nine critical areas of transit safety:

• Leadership and Management
• Transit Operations
• Vehicles and Maintenance
• Facilities and Maintenance
• Personnel
• Training
• Organizational Safety
• Organizational Security
• Community Emergency Response Preparedness

WHAT IS THE COST OF THE TRAINING?

Closed Enrollment:

This training is usually offered through arrangements with a state Department of Transportation or State Transit Association. We refer these trainings as “closed enrollment” because the sponsoring organization usually restricts enrollment to grantees or members. These are the costs for an organization to offer the training:

• All inclusive CTAA member rate of $6,500 for state, local and community transit organizations sponsoring this training workshop- this includes all travel and related expenses for the trainer and all workshop materials. It would be the host’s responsibility to supply the classroom site and minimal audio/visual equipment.
• Class size: limited to twenty persons

Open Enrollment:

From time to time we may also offer this training at regional venues around the country. These trainings would be open to anyone and payment would be on an individual basis. The cost for training in this format is $600 per person.

CTAA EXPO:

This class is also always offered at our annual CTAA EXPO.

For information on sponsoring a class or to find the next offering near you, email training@ctaa.org or visit our training calendar.