OSHA Doing Safety Checks at Auto Repair Shops

[davbell22602]

My teacher told us about his day class in getting certified to train people on car lifts so they get certified to use them. He said since factory work cut back that there hitting all the auto repair shops for lift safety. Back in 2008 it was passed in legislation that all auto techs must be certified to use a car lift and all car lifts must be inspected once year. If OSHA stops at a auto repair shop for the first time they will inspect the lifts and give the repair shop 30 days to get the lift fixed to there safety requirements. If OSHA comes back and its not fixed its a $1500-$7000 fine per lift. Its required by law that all accidents that happen on a lift must be reported to OSHA so they can come investigate. In the class my teacher went to they also said in 1-2 years it will required for all techs to take the 15 hour OSHA safety course online. Also in the next there gonna make it required that all techs must be certified to use floor jacks and jacks stands too. So if you pick up a jackstand by the center piece and it comes out then its not up to safety code according OSHA. Shops will have to get there jacks and jack stands inspected every year just like the car/truck lifts.

 

[Christian Nelson]

My teacher told us about his day class in getting certified to train people on car lifts so they get certified to use them. He said since factory work cut back that there hitting all the auto repair shops for lift safety. Back in 2008 it was passed in legislation that all auto techs must be certified to use a car lift and all car lifts must be inspected once year. If OSHA stops at a auto repair shop for the first time they will inspect the lifts and give the repair shop 30 days to get the lift fixed to there safety requirements. If OSHA comes back and its not fixed its a $1500-$7000 fine per lift. Its required by law that all accidents that happen on a lift must be reported to OSHA so they can come investigate. In the class my teacher went to they also said in 1-2 years it will required for all techs to take the 15 hour OSHA safety course online. Also in the next there gonna make it required that all techs must be certified to use floor jacks and jacks stands too. So if you pick up a jackstand by the center piece and it comes out then its not up to safety code according OSHA. Shops will have to get there jacks and jack stands inspected every year just like the car/truck lifts.

And people wonder why all the jobs in manufacturing are going to China.. Pretty soon, it will be cheaper to send your car to China to get it repaired because of the artificial overhead created by this nonsense.. When will it end?

 

[davbell22602]

And people wonder why all the jobs in manufacturing are going to China.. Pretty soon, it will be cheaper to send your car to China to get it repaired because of the artificial overhead created by this nonsense.. When will it end?

This kinda stupid. Takes common sense to use lift.

 

[Irishman999]

This kinda stupid. Takes common sense to use lift.

I think its great, that was the one part I hated about working in a garage was using the lifts.

Some of these places have broken, bent or ancient lifts that can get you seriously hurt or killed. I worked in a garage for 1 day that was using a lift that dropped a car the week before, they were trying to get me to just put jack stands under the one arm that was bent to keep pressure off the bent to **** arm.

My dad had hell with the small Ford dealer he worked for, they had the really really old school ones that came out of the floor. The arms were ALL bent and they bled off like crazy, there was zero mechanical locks.

This place also had a contract to do forest service trucks, so they were actually making him put big super duty's on this rack and placing stands under the front and back of the truck to stabilize it. My mom walked into the shop one day with a camera and the Service writer asked what she was doing, she said "when one of these trucks falls on my husband I am just making sure I will own Fullers Ford". At that point OSHA would not even come to look at the rack.

The fines are there to encourage business's to not put you in danger, its a good way to motivate employers to not but YOUR ASS in danger. Your the one under the car, not them. I can almost guarantee a 7k dollar fine is going to be cheaper than a wrongful death settlement anyways.

Thats great news Dave! look up Car lift failures on youtube, its scary **** man.

 

[Irishman999]

The training is an awesome idea as well, I was shown how to use one by our shop teacher in high school but I wish I had some actual training. I almost witnessed a disaster once because someone untrained was using a lift, they pulled the lever for the mechanical locks and started letting the car down without watching it. One side of the locks hung up and the other side kept going down, I thought it was going to tip so I ran like hell.

 

[davbell22602]

One of the new safety laws is all lifts must have power disconnect plug to pull on when using it in case the button gets stuck while raising the vehicle up.

 

[Christian Nelson]

All this does is add cost to employers, who pays for the inspections?? Think about it, this will mean one less employee they will hire, and my experience with all this government crap is, it will increas costs, and nothing will be any safer. Dudes will be forced to sleep through some boring video, check a box that they watched it, the "inspectors" will go out for coffee with the managers, and never even look at the lift before they sign off on it, and the shop will have to pay a "standard fee" for all the "service" that the inspections are providing.

I too have worked on some pretty unsafe equipment. I remember one lift would spin (old hydraulic single post type) because the side support broke off, and you could spin the cars all the way around, some of the guys thought it was pretty cool to not have to back the car out. We also had a two post fail on one side, dropping a car over. Luckily no one was under it.

I guarantee none of this Osha crap is gonna stop a single thing. All it will do is make the shop have to raise rates, which will make people not come to get their car fixed as often, etc, etc.

This is the exact same thing that has gone on throughout all industry and eventually, the manufacturers figured out that it costs a whole lot less if you move your whole plant to a place where feds aren't nosing under every corner looking to give you a fine, or fishing for bribes to look the other way. I remember working for a contractor, and the inspector would come and first thing he'd ask is what we were doing with building materials, and if you said he coule have them, and you'd deliver, he'd sign off, and if you said you were using them, etc, he'd want you to open up a wall you'd just completed so he could "get another look". No overt demanding of bribes, but this is how it always was, didn't matter the inspector, or the contractor I worked for. Didn't make anything safer, just funneled money into someone's pocket.

You know railroads used to be profitable too, look at what happened to them. You get enough barnacles on a barge, it no longer goes as easy down the river. People wonder where all the jobs went in america. There's your answer. The guys making the investment were chased away. Finding fresh blood and new targets will only chase them away as well.

One more thing to add, just remember, the Deep water Horizon won a safety award, and was "inspected" with a clean record right before the accident...