Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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Have a plan ready for when inspectors come knocking BY JACK ROBERTS to give up until he fi nds something wrong with one of your trucks. Someone in a position of authority is targeting you, and your fi rst thought is: Why can't they just leave me the hell alone? It's a common – and completely understandable – human Y reaction when these things happen. Unfortunately, anger and self-righteous indignation aren't going to be much help when you're dealing with law-enforcement or government offi cials. In fact, such an attitude probably is going to make things worse. In today's world, dealing with government agencies is a real- ity. As with any real-world situation, you need a plan in place to deal with the inevitable when those agencies come calling. The Occupational Safety & Health Administration is one government agency that people love to hate. But the agency, which operates under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Labor, is tasked to "assure safe and healthful working condi- tions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance." It takes that core responsibility seriously. The harsh reality for truck fl eets, shops and related opera- 56 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2012 ou know the feeling. A cop points a radar gun at you, an IRS audit arrives in the mail, there's a park- ing ticket on your windshield, or the U.S. Depart- ment of Transportation inspector just isn't going tions is that OSHA inspections can be costly. Take the case of a truckstop-based truck wash company in Georgia earlier this year that was fi ned $57,600 after agency inspectors determined the operation was unsafe for not providing workers with eye protection against an aluminum-cleaning agent and access to an emergency eye wash station. According to Joan Spencer, a compliance assistance special- ist with OSHA, trucking is a problematic industry to isolate in terms of agency specifi cs. But 2011 fi gures for trucking-related businesses in OSHA Region IV (South Florida) indicate that 44 inspections of truck-related business resulted in 165 citations being issued for a total of $196,000 in fi nes. If those two examples sound excessive, consider that OSHA fi nes routinely can climb into six fi gures for more egregious violations. Penalties in excess of $1 million are not unusual in worker fatality cases. Clearly, it behooves your fl eet and shop operations to accept the obvious and do everything in your power to prepare for – and pass – an OSHA inspection. Safety as an investment The trucking industry largely is a conservative one and natu- rally views any government intrusion with suspicion. Spencer,