Safety Technical Bulletin

Auto Dealership

Workplace Safety Tips

Retail Auto Dealerships provide several potential workplace hazards that can cause serious injury to sales personnel, office personnel, service technicians, and body shop personnel.

FFVA-MIC Loss Control Consultants can assist you in evaluating your workplace exposures and providing you with appropriate loss control recommendations.

AUTO DEALERSHIP – WORKPLACE EXPOSURES

• Back injuries
• Repetitive Motion injuries
• Skin Irritations
• Respiratory problems
• Crushing injuries
• Automobile accidents
• Slips, trips, falls

DEVELOPING A LOSS CONTROL PROGRAM

To successfully implement a workplace safety program, management must be willing to reduce and eliminate workplace injuries. There has to be a 100% commitment to establish an injury free environment.

• Sales personnel who accompany a client on a test drive should select a highway with a low volume of traffic to reduce potential automobile accidents.
• Sales personnel must wear seat belts at all times while on test-drives.
• Parking lots containing new and used vehicles should be “sight free” of potholes and uneven surfaces
• Periodic inspection and repair of parking lots should be encouraged.
• Care should be given in raising and lowering automobile hoods as there is a high potential for crushing and laceration type injuries to arms and hands.
• If golf carts are used to transport customers to sales lots, both feet should be inside golf cart.
• Golf carts traveling through rows of vehicles should treat each new row as an intersection and stop and look before proceeding.

OFFICE PERSONNEL – WORKPLACE SAFETY TIPS

• Office workers should be encouraged to look away from their computer monitors and focus on distant objects periodically.
• Floor mats that are curled or frayed should be removed to avoid trip and fall hazards.
• Floor mats should be strategically placed inside a wet showroom floor to avoid slip and fall hazards.
• All file drawers should be kept closed when not in use. Open file drawers can cause severe head lacerations.
• Computer workstations should be inspected to ensure that monitors, keyboards and chair adjustments match the physical characteristics of the employee to minimize repetitive motion and back strain hazards.

• Manual lifting should never be performed if the object being lifted can be done mechanically with hoists or forklifts.
• Manual lifting suggestions should include:
• Check the weight first and determine if help is needed
• Place feet close to object, bend knees and keep back straight
• Keep the load close to your body without twisting or turning
• Set the load down slowly, bending your knees
• Safety glasses should be worn when changing tires or using any type of pneumatic powered tool.
• Safety glasses should be worn when sharpening tools on a bench grinder.
• Safety glasses should be worn when working under vehicles mounted on a lift or jack stands.
• When auto engines are running, ensure that exhaust fumes are properly ventilated to the outside.
• All guards and tool rests should be in place and proper working order on bench grinders.
• Portable powered hand tools should be inspected regularly for proper grounding, worn surfaces.
• All hand tools should be inspected and checked for damage or worn surfaces.
• All service technicians should have a designated highway, which has a low volume of traffic for test-driving repaired vehicles.
• No Smoking Signs should be posted and enforced when using a parts cleaning tank.

HYDRAULIC LIFT SAFETY TIPS

• Only properly trained auto techs should position autos onto lift.
• Manufacturer’s recommendations for proper lift points and proper positioning of lift pads and arms should be reviewed and followed at all times.
• Random walk by inspections should be done by fellow techs (Referred to as the “Buddy System”)
• Only trained personnel should be allowed to service the lifts.
• Make sure proper lift pads are used for vehicles with undercoating

• Body Shop Personnel should be required to wear eye protection when welding, cutting, or grinding body parts.
• A disposable dust respirator should be worn when sanding or polishing body parts.
• Body Shop Personnel should wear the proper respirator or portable air supply when applying paints or primers to vehicles.
• Ensure that all 55 gal. drums of flammable solvents and paints are properly grounded and bonded to prevent fire and explosion hazards from occurring.[Note: proper grounding is attaching a ground wire to the drum and securing ground wire to metal ground of building.]
• Paints, thinners, and solvents should be stored in fireproof cabinets.
• Interior walls and ceilings of spray paint booths should have explosion proof lighting and wiring and proper exhaust ventilation.
• Walls of spray paint booths should have at least a 30-minute fire rating.
• All oxygen and acetylene cylinders should be properly chained to a wall with at least 30 feet of separation between cylinders. Protective caps should be on all unused cylinders.
• No Smoking rule should be strictly enforced in body shop and paint area including posted signs.