Construction Vehicle and Equipment Compliance

The use of dump trucks, flatbeds, pickups, and/or self-propelled personnel and burden carriers add extra jobsite hazards for workers. Motor vehicles bring the risk of being crushed beneath and/or struck by a vehicle, along with exposure to hazardous air contaminants such as diesel exhaust. If employers do not have the proper controls in place and employees have not been trained to recognize the hazards and take precautionary measures, accidents and injuries can occur.

OSHA regulates motor vehicles under the construction regulations at 29 CFR 1926.601, which covers vehicles that operate within an off-highway jobsite, not open to public traffic. This includes vehicles with enclosed cabs such as dump trucks, flatbeds, and pickups, as well as those without them such as self-propelled personnel and burden carriers such as four-wheelers. According to OSHA’s general safety and health provisions (29 CFR 1926.20), only those employees qualified by training or experience should be permitted to operate equipment and machinery.

Cranes and derricks are necessary equipment on many jobsites. Although this equipment is designed, tested and manufactured for safe operation, the variable conditions and activities faced on a jobsite have the potential for causing catastrophic accidents if safe operating practices are not followed.

Accidents can be avoided by careful job planning, development and implementation of control measures and training employees to recognize hazards and use the protective measures needed to work on or around cranes. OSHA estimates that 89 crane-related fatalities occur per year in construction work. Find out more.

OSHA regulates cranes and derricks used for construction, alteration, and/or repair under Subpart CC of its construction regulations. This standard applies to power-operated equipment, when used in construction that can hoist, lower and horizontally move a suspended load. Find out more.

When it comes to building roads, clearing land in preparation for construction, or performing a variety of other tasks on a jobsite, the use of highly mobile, powerful, earth-moving equipment, such as bulldozers, backhoes, and front-end loaders can be critical to the success of a project. However, heavy equipment poses risks not only to the operator, but also those who work around this type of equipment. Find out more.

OSHA regulates heavy equipment such as bulldozers, backhoes, front-end loaders, and dump trucks under Subpart O of the 1926 construction regulations. This standard provides general requirements for the use and care of equipment, as well as requirements for the operation/nonoperation of equipment or movement in the vicinity of power lines or energized transmitters.