Why Dealership Service Lift Inspections Are an OSHA Requirement
Key takeaways
- Dealership service departments must address a range of OSHA and EHS issues including 300 logs, proper machine guarding, and correct storage of oils and gas.
- Lift inspections should be performed on an annual basis in dealership service departments.
- Many compliance vendors do not offer lift inspections, so dealerships should confirm this service is included when selecting an OSHA compliance provider.
- OSHA inspectors have conducted targeted blitzes focused specifically on lift inspections in areas such as Illinois and Hawaii.
- Certified lift inspectors are relatively scarce, so dealerships should seek out qualified inspectors with automotive service department experience.
Summary
OSHA compliance in the service department covers a wide range of issues, from proper labeling and machine guarding to correct storage of oils and gas, and lift inspections are one piece that many vendors overlook entirely. Service lifts should be inspected on an annual basis, and OSHA has been known to run targeted blitzes focused specifically on lifts in certain areas, so a dealership caught without documentation can face real exposure. Certified lift inspectors are not common, so dealerships need to confirm their compliance vendor actually offers this service rather than assuming it's included.
For a dealership, this means checking whether the current OSHA or EHS vendor is covering lift inspections along with the standard 300 log audits and shop walkthroughs, since gaps here range from minor slip-and-fall risks to serious injury exposure. Terry Dortch notes that ARMP has its own certified lift inspector on staff, someone with over 30 years of dealership service department experience, and mentions past regional OSHA lift-focused inspections in Illinois and Hawaii as evidence this is a real, recurring enforcement risk rather than a hypothetical one.
Transcript
Overview of service department OSHA and EHS issues
Hello, my name is Terry Dortch with Automotive Risk Management Partners. I'm here today to talk to you a little bit about compliance in the service department, your OSHA EHS issues. There's a lot of different companies out there that you can search or that you can find that will satisfy your OSHA requirements and come in and take care of your 300 logs. They'll come in and do your regular audits to make sure that everything in the shop is labeled properly, that you've got all the proper guarding on your grinders, that everybody's doing the things that they're supposed to do, oils stored properly, gas stored properly, you know, I can go on and on.
Range and severity of typical OSHA audit findings
So there's a host of different OSHA things that obviously a good auditor is going to come through, they're going to take notice of that, and they're going to make comments and let you know how to resolve them or fix the issues that exist. And they can range anywhere from stuff that creates slip and falls to stuff that's serious where somebody can actually get hurt or lose a limb or life.
Introducing certified lift inspection services
One of those things that I really want to talk about are lift inspections, because a lot of the vendors out there today, they don't do those. We do. We have an individual on staff with us that does lift inspections. He's a certified inspector in it. He also has over 30 years in the automotive industry as a service director, service manager. He worked his way up his entire life basically working for automobile dealerships. So the individual that we have knows lifts, he knows the service department, he knows how to get around it, what to do.
Need for annual lift inspections and OSHA blitzes
Bottom line is you need to start doing these on an annual basis. It's not unheard of to have OSHA inspectors do a blitz in an area and go through and just concentrate on lifts. We've had it done in Illinois, I know it was done in Hawaii a few years back when I was out there. We had customers in Hawaii that we had to go and sit with during those audits.
Scarcity of certified lift inspectors and vendor selection
So there's basically a host of different things and different people that you can go to. There's a lot of lift inspectors out there that are certified, I shouldn't say a lot, there's a handful really, it's not a ton. So make sure that when you're looking at your OSHA piece of all of this that you include your lift inspections in it, because those are an important aspect of that whole OSHA piece of it.
Closing contact information
Again, if you have any questions or anything and you want to talk about it, feel free to give us a call. Phone number, website, everything's right here on the screen. Talk to you later. Thanks. Bye.
Questions this video answers
Do we really need to get our service lifts inspected every year?
Yes, the transcript states that dealerships need to start doing lift inspections on an annual basis, since OSHA inspectors have been known to conduct blitzes that concentrate specifically on lifts, as has happened in Illinois and Hawaii.
Will any OSHA compliance vendor handle our lift inspections?
Not necessarily. Many vendors that handle OSHA requirements like 300 logs and shop audits do not perform lift inspections. Dealerships should confirm a vendor includes certified lift inspections, since only a handful of certified inspectors exist.
What kind of OSHA issues does a service department audit typically cover?
A good OSHA auditor will review items such as proper labeling, guarding on grinders, and correct storage of oils and gas, and will flag issues ranging from slip and fall hazards to serious risks where someone could lose a limb or life.
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Covered in this video
- OSHA compliance
- lift inspections
- 300 logs
- service department EHS audits