No other part of a dealership can compare to the service department in terms of moving parts. I mean that both figuratively and literally. For as many nuts, bolts, pistons, panels, plugs, and springs your service team handles, there’s an almost equal amount of rules and regulations to follow.
Make sure you know the following regulations to keep your team safe and operating on the right side of the law:
- The Clean Air Act reduces pollution by regulating air emissions. Under the Act, dealerships are forbidden from messing with devices, such as catalytic converters, air pumps, and positive crankcase ventilation systems, that limit emissions.
- The Clean Water Act regulates how your dealership can store and dispose of wastewater and oil, in order to reduce contamination of nearby water sources.
- The Department of Transportation requires that your employees are properly trained in hazardous materials handling procedures. The DOT broadly defines hazardous materials as those that “could potentially harm the public and the environment.” Examples include flammable, poisonous, and radioactive substances.
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s tampering rules prohibit dealerships from tampering with any pre-installed safety equipment in used vehicles.
- The NHTSA also enforces tire rules that require dealerships to properly deal with and report information about defective and recalled tires.
- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s asbestos standards protect workers from asbestos exposure by limiting the equipment dealers are allowed to use during the cleaning of certain devices that may contain asbestos.
- OSHA Hazard Communication encompasses the many labels, data sheets, disclosures, training procedures, and other forms of communication that inform workers at your dealership about the presence of hazardous chemicals and how to safely handle them.
- OSHA’s lockout/tagout procedures explain how employees should safely shut off or isolate devices that otherwise have the potential to release hazardous energy.
- OSHA’s standards for workplace health and safety protect your employees’ well-being in all forms. These laws regulate everything from personal protective equipment use to accident reporting to proper workplace temperature—and much more.
Next: Customer-Facing Employees
In the next installment in this series, we’ll take off the gloves (again, literally and figuratively) to explore what rules your customer-facing employees need to know.
But you don’t have to wait until then to overhaul your workforce compliance program. See how easy it is to manage workforce compliance initiatives across your dealership using our automated compliance platform.
Welcome to our series on the numerous federal rules and regulations that impact automotive dealerships. In this and upcoming articles, we’ll be taking a look at the roles employees at each department play in keeping your dealership compliant.
If you missed Part 1, which provides a bird’s eye view of regulations across your dealership, click here.
