Top OSHA Violations to Avoid

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited Trucking and Courier Services, Except Air (SIC 4210) with 1,023 violations from Oct. 2009 through Sept. 2010. These citations resulted in $1,018,433 in penalties.

OSHA’s Powered Industrial Truck Standard (1910.178) is consistently the most cited violation for trucking and courier services. This standard regulates safety requirements that relate to fire protection, design, maintenance and use of fork trucks, tractors, platform lift trucks, motorized hand trucks and other specialized industrial trucks powered by electric motors or internal combustion engines.

While 1910.178 is the most common standard violated in the trucking and courier services industry, it is important to take all of the violations into account. When standards are grouped together by related categories and they are viewed as a whole, the number of citations and their importance is emphasized. For instance, SIC 4210 was cited with 159 Electrical violations from Oct. 2009 to Sept. 2010; more than the number of citations received for the Powered Industrial Truck Standard.

See the following tables for categorized standards.

As a motor carrier, you know that potential OSHA violations can be found in the maintenance shop, at the dock or warehouse and in the office. To avoid violating a regulation and incurring a fine, conduct routine inspections and make required improvement. Most of the repairs you find will be simple and inexpensive to make, and will cost less than the fine. Remember, OSHA can use the General Duty Clause to cite violations that could result in personal injury, even if a specific regulation does not exist.

Please refer to the Resource Library for video training programs that can assist you with OSHA regulations and requirements.

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