Commercial appeal: Tips to keep employees safe

Did you know that:

1. Texting while driving is blamed for 6,000 vehicle-related deaths annually in the U.S. alone?

2. Only one out of 2 billion people will live to be 116 or older?

3. The average lifespan of a major league baseball is seven pitches?

4. Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people?

5. 22% of men have cheated on their wives at least once in their life?

You did? Well then, what do those five facts have in common?

Answer: They all have something to do with limiting a person's lifespan. (OK, number 3 was a trick.)

Being a commercial truck tire service technician is a dangerous profession. There are many ways to get hurt, maimed or killed if techs don't do their jobs properly and take the necessary precautions.

Every commercial truck tire dealer who operates service trucks or has tire-changing operations within its company's walls has to be concerned about each employee's lifespan, which means safety on the job.

With congested traffic, road construction and the high summer temperatures most of the country is having this year, road-side tire servicing has never been more difficult and harsh.

And as more commercial carriers transfer their tire maintenance work to your company while requesting faster turn-around times, it's more important now than ever that proper safety procedures are always followed when servicing tires both on the road and in your shops.

If you haven't done so recently, take the opportunity to review safety procedures with your commercial tire service team now. I know you're busy, but there is no better time than now if you haven't done this in the last few months.

The first place to start is with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations. Every employer must train every technician in the proper procedures for servicing truck and bus tires on wheels and ensure that no employee services any tire/wheel assembly unless he or she has been trained in the safe operating procedures and can demonstrate the ability to service tires and wheels properly before performing the job.

The Tire Industry Association (TIA) has a highly regarded training program for commercial tire service technicians that includes OSHA-required training, but you probably are aware of this already. It is vital that all of your new technicians receive this training before you put them to work to ensure a long lifespan for them.

If your company provides emergency road service, your tire service safety program should include a daily inspection of the service truck.

Ensure your road-service technicians check reflectors and lights every day. That includes head lights, tail lights, brake lights, turn signals and amber beacons.

Windshield wipers, wiper fluid and the horn also should be checked daily. Each truck's tire pressures and tread depths should be checked regularly as well. (It would be rather embarrassing if your company's service truck with its company's name on it was broken down on the side of the road with a flat tire.)

Because service truck air compressors and articulating booms require regular maintenance, they need to have periodic inspections, too. Having equipment that doesn't work right or just doesn't work at all when on the side of the road servicing a tire in rush hour traffic on a blazing, steamy, 90-degree day will really put a good technician in a bad mood and could place him or her in a dangerous situation.

The safety equipment stored on the service truck should be inspected also to ensure it is operational as well as to make sure it's being used. (Managers should inspect service trucks from time to time, too.)

A properly equipped service truck should have the following tools and materials to provide the technician with what he or she needs to work safely:

• A pair of goggles and ear protection;
• A pair of heavy-duty work gloves;
• A first-aid kit including bandages and eye wash;
• A portable, OSHA-approved tire inflation cage;
• An in-line inflation device with pressure gauge;
• A fire extinguisher (10BC or 1A 10BC);
• A set of three reflective triangles, emergency flares or lanterns;
• A box of clean rags or towels;
• A 20-ton jack;
• A 12-ton jack stand;
• One or two metal plates for under the jack and jack stand;
• Two wheel chocks;
• Cribbing and blocking material; and
• A framing square.

If protective clothing and goggles are missing, they should be replaced. If the fire extinguisher has been used, it should be recharged or replaced right away. The first-aid kit should be checked routinely to ensure that it is intact. Flares, lanterns and reflective triangles should be checked every day before heading out for the day's first service call.

Don't overlook tire cages. OSHA requires that safety cages be inspected on a daily basis. If any damage is evident, the cage must be removed from service.

A damaged cage cannot be returned to service until it has been repaired and recertified. If you have a damaged cage, it's cheaper and faster to just to get a new one.

Make sure the clip on the clip-on chuck for the remote inflation device works, too. This can wear out and end up popping off the valve stem. It's imperative that the technician has enough inflation hose to stand well off to the side during inflation and out of the trajectory or blast zone.

Take a look at the service truck's jack while you're in the bed checking the safety cage. Air-hydraulic jacks should be stored so that rain and snow can't rust them and the plungers should be retracted.

Storing jacks with the plungers extended can cause dents, scratches and similar types of damage to the surface that eventually can render them unserviceable.

As important as the jacks are, it is equally important to ensure the service truck is equipped with a jack stand and metal plates for under the jack and stand. Those metal plates really come in handy when heavy rains turn highway berms into mud.

Of course, having a well-equipped truck does not guarantee that your service technicians will be safe. Several hundred people die each year while changing tires by the roadside — primarily because they didn't set up the jacks correctly or because they were hit by traffic.

Service personnel must be trained to work safely. If the vehicle being worked on is hit by an oncoming car or falls on the technician, it's a good bet that person's lifespan will be seriously affected. So it is essential that a few road service guidelines be strictly adhered to.

The most important thing a technician must do is ensure that the vehicle being serviced is in a position where the service person is not in danger. It should be at least five feet from the edge of the nearest traffic lane, and emergency reflective triangles must be set up.

One triangle must be located on the traffic side within 10 feet from the front or rear of the disabled vehicle. The other two should be placed approximately 100 feet from the vehicle being serviced in both directions so they are visible to passing and oncoming traffic.

The service truck should be parked about 30 feet from the disabled vehicle with the flashers clearly visible to passing and oncoming traffic and must have the parking brake applied.

The technician should never work between the service truck and the stopped vehicle. Many service people have been killed when their service trucks were struck by traffic and they were crushed between the two vehicles. If the stopped vehicle cannot be serviced safely on the side of the road, it must be moved to a location where the service person is not in danger of being injured by passing or oncoming traffic.

The second most important thing the technician should do is raise and secure the disabled vehicle properly. If the ground is not level or is too soft, the vehicle must be moved to a safer location.

Then two chocks must be placed to secure the vehicle so that it cannot move in either direction once the axle is raised. Metal plates can be placed under the jack and jack stand to prevent them from sinking into soft ground. (The jack and jack stand must be able to lift and support more than the actual load carried by the axle being lifted, so the technician must know the weight of the vehicle being raised.)

The safest area to place a jack or jack stand is directly under the axle or any part directly connected to the axle such as U-bolts or spring saddles. Cribbing may also be needed to attain additional height. A vehicle should never be supported by a jack without a jack stand.

Finally, there are a few safety steps that must be followed when handling tire/wheel assemblies whether on the side of the road or in the shop. Tires must be completely deflated before demounting by removing the valve core and running a piece of wire through the valve stem to make sure that it is not plugged.

Tires that have been run flat or underinflated at 80% or less of the recommended pressure should never be re-inflated on or off the vehicle without fully deflating the tire and inspecting both the tire and wheel for damage.

Sometimes tire sealants or other internal products may produce flammable vapors inside a tire that smell of ammonia when the valve core is removed prior to demounting. These vapors must be removed before unseating the tire beads.

To do this, the tire should be inflated and deflated several times until the odor is gone. Smoking is definitely not recommended during this process.

Prior to mounting tires, wheels have to be closely inspected to ensure that they are safe to use. Attempts should never be made to try to rework, weld, heat or braze wheels/rims that are cracked, broken or damaged.

These types of repairs will not withstand the loads and pressures placed on the wheel and a catastrophic failure could result at the wrong time and in the wrong place. (Is there ever a right time and place?)

Running flat for an extended period of time, improper inflation procedures such as using ether or propane to seat tire beads and excessive heat from frozen brakes or wheel bearings can deform the wheel bead seats and actually shrink them.

If a tire is mounted on a wheel with shrunken bead seats, it will blow off the wheel with explosive force upon inflation. Tires have been known to blow off wheels after the wheel flanges have been damaged and have shortened the lifespan of many unsuspecting technicians.

Therefore, all wheels must be inspected carefully before mounting tires on them. If a tire that is removed from a wheel exhibits heat damage (bead deformation, burned beads, rubber crystallization on the rim flange), the wheel exhibits discoloration caused by heat, and/or the rim flange appears to be scalloped, immediately scrap the wheel.

Sometimes wheels with shrunken bead seats may not exhibit any obvious damage. Therefore, if possible, roll the wheel on a smooth, flat floor for at least 10 feet. If the wheel does not roll in a straight line but turns, the dimensions of the wheel have changed and the wheel should be scrapped.

If the technician is on the side of the road and cannot conduct a rim roll test, a framing square should be used to check the rim flanges.

This is done by placing the long leg of the square on the disc face aligned with the centers of two opposing bolt holes. When the short leg of the square is dropped down in contact with a rim flange, a gap between the square and either rim flange should be no more than the thickness of a credit card (0.03 inch as measured with a feeler gauge).

This check should be made in multiple locations on the wheel. If the gap is greater than 0.03 inch at any point, the wheel should be scrapped.

Probably the most ignored safety procedure of all is the federal requirement to always inflate tire/wheel assemblies in a safety cage. I can't tell you the number of times I have seen technicians inflate tires outside a cage that is only a few feet away.

The safety cage must be an OSHA-compliant restraining device or the tire/wheel assembly must be positioned behind a barrier that is placed between the tire and the technician. No one is allowed to sit or lean on the restraining device or barrier or place equipment on it.

The reason for this is that if a zipper rupture should occur, for example, the air blast will blow the person across the room and the nearby equipment will turn into shrapnel. The cage will spin with tremendous force and knock anyone near it.

Tires never should be inflated on the floor or where any other solid surface is within one foot of the tire's sidewall since the air blast from a tire/wheel assembly lying flat will blow it through the roof or across the room if standing close to a wall. It is not recommended that cages be bolted to the floor since the force of a tire explosion is enough to rip the bolts out of the floor and turn them and pieces of concrete into projectiles. Ouch.

Technicians always must use the safety cage when inflating tire and wheel assemblies off the vehicle, and the technician and the driver or other shop personnel must remain out of the trajectory when any tire is being inflated. Just using a safety cage every time will extend your technicians' lifespans significantly since it can reduce the risk of injury or death if other fatal mistakes are made or lethal tire or wheel conditions are overlooked.

Getting your technicians trained, tire shop and service trucks properly equipped, and ensuring your personnel employ the proper tire and wheel service practices all the time will greatly increase your technicians' odds of living long and prosperous lives on the job.

Now if we could just do something about texting while driving and cheating husbands ...

Peggy can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]. Her previous columns are available at www.tirebusiness.com