Clausen Companies earned two safety recognitions from Acuity Insurance for Outstanding Safety Performance in 2025, marking the Clinton, Iowa, transportation and logistics company’s first warehouse safety award and its sixth fleet safety recognition since 2019.
The recognition reflects a safety program built around employee involvement, regular training, and long-range planning. Clausen’s fleet traveled 1,597,006 miles in 2025, while its warehouse operation completed 50,000 hours of work without a recordable injury.
“Our motto is, ‘Quality first, safety always,’” said Tammy Bos, Clausen’s safety manager.
Clausen’s operations bring different risks, as it provides trucking and distribution across the U.S., as well as warehousing, material handling, and transloading services. The company reviews new products and processes carefully, and employees are encouraged to raise concerns and suggest safer ways to work.
“A new employee may look at a process with fresh eyes and ask, ‘Why do we do it this way?’” Bos said. “We want to have that conversation.”
Clausen supports that culture with ongoing training through Eastern Iowa Community Colleges (EICC).
Recent courses have covered forklift operation, fire extinguisher use, CPR, and When OSHA Comes Calling. EICC has also provided training on welding, cutting, brazing, and flammable storage. Other support has included leadership, technology, ethics and compliance, and commercial driver training.
Some classes help Clausen meet regulatory requirements. Others address risks the company has identified within its own operations.
“We prefer to go beyond the minimum. We want to stay ahead and make sure our employees are prepared,” Bos said.
Leallen Ehlers, EICC’s Engineering Technology Business Development & Training Specialist, said that approach helps Clausen address a risk common across many workplaces. “One of the biggest challenges in workplace safety is complacency,” he said. “Clausen’s ongoing training and awareness efforts are designed to prevent it.”
Ehlers said Clausen employees stand out for their active participation. During training sessions, they ask questions, take part in discussions, and connect the course material to the work they perform each day.
Clausen has worked with several EICC instructors, and Bos said all of them share an important quality. “The trainers include our employees in discussions, have conversations with them, and make the training personal to our workplace,” she said.
That approach allows the company and EICC to customize training to Clausen’s equipment, processes, schedule, and operating environment. A standard class may provide the foundation, but examples and discussions can be shaped around the work employees perform.
Scheduling is also part of the solution. Clausen operates across multiple locations and shifts. Some classes must be held at night or on weekends, and some employees travel between Clinton and Davenport.
Bos begins planning early. Each November, she reviews the company’s training matrix for the following year and works with Ehlers to identify classes and potential dates. The advance planning gives supervisors and employees time to prepare while helping the company avoid last-minute scheduling problems.
The college also helped Clausen access state training funds through Iowa’s 260E and 260F programs. EICC ‘s Business Solutions consultants help employers identify funding opportunities, complete the process, and coordinate training based on business needs.
The combination of funding support, customized instruction, and flexible scheduling allows Clausen to address both planned training and needs that arise during the year.
Kambren Bigwood, Clausen’s human resources manager, said the relationship gives the company a dependable place to turn when it needs help developing a solution. “EICC is a resource we can turn to, whether we have an ongoing training need or a one-time situation we need help solving,” he said.
The safety awards recognize Clausen’s results, but the company credits the employees who put its expectations into practice each day. Drivers, warehouse employees, supervisors, and support staff all contribute to the record.
“Our employees are every part of it. If they don’t work safely, we don’t earn these awards,” Bos said.
Businesses interested in customized safety training can contact%20EICC%20Business%20Solutions%20to%20discuss%20available%20resources%20and%20training.