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OSHA has jurisdiction over off-highway loading and unloading, such as warehouses, plants, grain handling facilities, retail locations, marine terminals, wharves, piers, and shipyards. DOT has jurisdiction over interstate highway driving, Commercial Driving Licensing (CDL), the hours of service and roadworthiness of the vehicles. EPA has jurisdiction over the natural environment and pollution prevention programs. OSHA has jurisdiction unless preempted by another federal agency such as DOT or EPA, but can only be preempted in a specified activity or task. OSHA has the ultimate responsibility for the safety and health of all employees.
These pages are part of OSHA and industry's commitment to provide employers and trucking workers with information and assistance to help in complying with OSHA and other agency standards to ensure a safe workplace.
The following is an overview of the regulations, training requirements, and other resources:
Jurisdiction
When another federal agency has regulated a working condition, OSHA is preempted by Section 4(b)1 from enforcing its regulations. For example:
TEA-21, DOT (2002, July), 1 page. The Transportation Equity Act for the Twenty First Century (TEA-21) website is part of the larger FHWA/DOT website and contains information and links about the law and its implications for all the surface transportation programs carried out by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Bureau of Transportation Statistics BTS (2003), 2 pages. BTS collects information on transportation and other areas. The Bureau's largest data collection programs are the Commodity Flow Survey and the American Travel Survey, conducted jointly with the Bureau of the Census to identify where freight and people go by all modes of transportation.
Department of Transportation Regulations under Titles 23 and 49
Note: A self-employed independent owner-operator is covered under the FMCSRs, and defined as an "employee" unlike in OSHA Regulations where a self-employed person is not covered by the OSHA Act and is not considered an "employee".
390.5, Definitions
Employee means any individual, other than an employer, who is employed by an employer and who in the course of his or her employment directly affects commercial motor vehicle safety. This term includes a driver of a commercial motor vehicle (including an independent contractor while in the course of operating a commercial motor vehicle), a mechanic, and a freight handler. It does not include an employee of the United States, any state, any political subdivision of a state, or any agency established under a compact between states and approved by the Congress of the United States who is acting within the course of such employment.
Employer means any person engaged in a business affecting interstate commerce who owns or leases a commercial motor vehicle in connection with that business, or assigns employees to operate it, but such term does not include the United States, any state, any political subdivision of a state, or an agency established under a compact between States approved by the Congress of the United states.
| SIC 42 - MOTOR FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION & WAREHOUSING | |
| 4212 | Local Trucking Without Storage |
| 4213 | Trucking, Except Local |
| 4214 | Local Trucking With Storage |
| 4215 | Courier Services, Except by Air |
| 4221 | Farm Product Warehousing & Storage |
| 4222 | Refrigerated Warehousing & Storage |
| 4225 | General Warehousing & Storage |
| 4226 | Special Warehousing & Storage, NEC (Not Elsewhere Classified) |
| 4231 | Terminal & Joint Terminal Maintenance Facilities for Motor Freight Transportation |
