Practicing alcohol safety and knowing alcohol safety procedures can be the difference between life and death for someone, whether that person is a patron of your bar or anyone else. Staggeringly high numbers of drunk driving deaths, alcohol-related emergency room visits, and many other alcohol-related injuries and issues occur every year.
As a bartender, server, manager, or owner, it is your responsibility to ensure that the patrons entering and leaving your establishment are safe. Not only should you be serving alcohol safely, but you should also be hyper-vigilant of the patrons in your restaurant, know your company policies, implement cutoffs, and work as a team.
Taking all of these precautions is a great way to protect yourself, your establishment, and your patrons. This knowledge, though, comes from knowing exactly how to approach potentially dangerous or uncomfortable situations, as learned through training. RBS training can help you understand the importance of alcohol safety, how to serve alcohol safely, and how to improve the environment at your restaurant or bar.
What is the Impact of Alcohol-Related Harm?
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the impact of alcohol-related harm cannot be understated. As of 2014, there were over 200,000 alcohol-related emergency room visits per year. To put that into perspective, that is a 47% increase from 2006 to 2014, and that number continues to grow every year.
Those aren’t the only alarming numbers. In 2019, over 10,000 people nationwide died from alcohol-related vehicle accidents, which is about 30% of all car accident fatalities. Additionally, on average, 95,000 people die from alcohol-related deaths every year. This includes drunk driving, alcohol poisoning, and all other alcohol-related deaths that cannot be directly attributed to either.
Whether the patron walking into your bar may be the cause or a statistic relating to these numbers is unclear when they step into your doors. However, as a bartender, server, manager, or other service professional who handles alcohol, it is your job and your responsibility to prevent as much harm as possible. Through means like RBS training and other alcohol safety-related protocols, you’ll know exactly what you need to do to keep everyone safe.
What is RBS Training?
RBS training, or Responsible Beverage Service training, is a course required in California for restaurant staff, bartenders, managers, and owners to help them understand the importance of alcohol safety and serving alcohol safely. This course teaches you, as an alcohol server, the dangers of potentially serving alcohol to minors or over-serving alcohol to patrons, and the potential consequences of those actions.
When you begin RBS training, you will learn several aspects of what it means to be a responsible alcohol server and how to promote alcohol safety within your business. Some of the topics you will discuss in RBS training are:
- Legal responsibilities for serving alcohol safely and responsibly
- Effects of alcohol consumption and abuse on friends, family, and community
- Physical effects of alcohol on the body and warning signs of overserving
- Establishment policies for serving alcohol responsibly
- Identifying and preventing intoxicated and underage patrons
- Checking patron ID cards and identifying potential fakes
- Refusing service to intoxicated patrons
- Proper intervention techniques to prevent drunk driving
While these training courses are not comprehensive, they’re an amazing tool for all staff to receive if your establishment serves alcohol. Knowing what to look for, how to act, and some courses you can take to help alleviate the issue of a potentially dangerous, intoxicated patron are great stepping stones as you gain experience in the field.
How Important is RBS Training?
RBS training is vital to your business. With RBS training, you’re setting yourself and your employees up for success, because the more informed and knowledgeable you are, the better able you are to handle any kind of situation that may occur.
RBS training teaches servers and bartenders how to sell alcohol responsibly and safely. Not only is this important for the patron, but it’s also vital to the business owner and the server as well, as any kind of mistake on their part could result in legal action. RBS training also teaches servers how to spot when a patron may have had one too many drinks and how they can intervene to prevent a situation from occurring.
This aspect of RBS training is probably the most important. If servers can help to prevent issues like overconsumption leading to alcohol poisoning, drunk driving, or any of the other numerous potential hazards that occur from drinking too much, then they may very well have saved a life.
This kind of training makes a massive difference in the community as well. Properly trained alcohol distributors can help to create safer communities and safer establishments, because if alcohol consumption is properly regulated then the rate of alcohol-related harm and incidents decreases.
Of course, not every establishment can combat every issue that walks through its doors. However, with these prevention techniques learned through RBS training, the incidents will surely be few and far between.
How Can RBS Training Benefit Me?
Aside from the ethical importance of this training, RBS training is crucial for your business. As of July 2022, RBS training is required for all establishments that want to serve alcohol. If your staff does not have an RBS certification, then they are not allowed to serve alcoholic beverages to patrons. This is true for all establishments that want to serve alcohol, including hotels, casinos, tasting rooms, stadiums, movie theaters, and more. If you want to serve alcohol in California, then you need an RBS certification.
The logistic side of RBS training isn’t the only important aspect, however. RBS training ensures that you receive training for situations that may arise while you are a bartender, server, or manager.
RBS Training
To run a successful business, you need to have high-quality training and employees who know what they’re doing. Owning an establishment that serves alcohol is no different. RBS training can ensure that everyone you work with, whether you’re the owner of the business or a bartender, practices safe and responsible alcohol sales. RBS certification in California is easy with us.
If you’re interested in signing up with our company to receive RBS Training, register for our course today!