Heavy-duty repair shops can be dangerous places to work. Corrosive chemicals, heavy machinery, high-pressure hoses, power tools, pneumatic tools, and trucks and trailers with lots of moving parts are routine. It takes vigilance to make sure people aren’t injured on the job.

Most people blame workplace accidents on unsafe conditions, but the truth is that most are the result of unsafe behaviour. And a lot of times, unsafe behaviour is a matter of cutting corners, ignoring risks, or rushing a job.

John Aird, vice-president of client services for the Ontario Service Safety Alliance (OSSA), says technicians are smart enough to avoid these kinds of workplace pitfalls if they know where the danger is.

“Most of the people who work in a shop are good problem solvers. They’re fairly analytical because of the nature of the work. They figure things out,” he says. “So if you introduce them to the information about what could be making the job demanding, they’re very good at fixing it.”

Surprisingly, he says, the most common injury in the repair shop has less to do with heavy machinery and moving engine parts than it does with simple ergonomics. “The potential for lost time is actually most common with sprains and strains,” Aird explains. “These injuries don’t seem as serious as some of the other dangers present in the shop, and they don’t have the same potential for fatal consequences, but in terms of the routine day-to-day work, they create some of the greatest challenges.”

Aird says many injuries are a direct result of the awkward body positions required to do the work. When your morning is spent creeping under a vehicle, leaning over a fender, and stretching across the floor of the cab to work under the dash, your body is going to revolt by lunchtime. Repetitive strain is common, too, especially with wrists and elbows.

“All of this puts a huge strain on various parts of the body,” he says. “You’ll see technicians developing shoulder, wrist, and elbow pains, and back injuries are common.”

Fortunately, you can help prevent these problems by working to eliminate or minimize the kind of awkward body positions and repetitive strains that can take a toll on them in the long run.

“Take time to raise or lower the vehicle to a level that eliminates an awkward body position,” Aird suggests. “Use carts with wheels to position heavy or awkward parts prior to installation. Or use support devices to hold the part in place while it’s being fastened. A lot of times technicians have all the tools available to eliminate the strains on their muscles.”

Safety resource material is available from a number of places. Many of the provincial workers compensation boards have modules that pertain to repair shops. Trade associations also have material available. And many equipment manufacturers not only offer safety training on their own equipment, but have developed generic workplace safety training as well. Snap-on Tools of Canada, for example, has a detailed safety program called “Do It Right, Do It Safely,” with tips on using hand and power tools common to the repair shop.

Rex Sarson, president of the Automotive Aftermarket Retailers of Ontario, and the owner of Stop and Go AutoPro in Burlington, Ont., is compiling information from various sources and putting together his own workplace safety package. When it’s complete, he hopes it will be helpful to other shop owners and managers as a kind of checklist.

“A lot of safety precautions are taught to apprentices as part of their training,” he says. “But if you’re not constantly practicing good working habits, you can forget. And if people aren’t constantly leaning on you to do things the right way, typically the boss, things can slide a bit. It’s only human nature.”

He says small shops tend not to think about organizing a safety committee to look at how jobs physically get done. They typically work day-to-day, as safely as they feel they can. Unfortunately, when someone finally does get hurt, it’s often determined that the mishap could have been prevented by extra vigilance.

“We’re trying to cover all bases, and there may be a few bases we aren’t covering because we don’t know about them,” he says. “In this industry, we certainly don’t need anything else that will undermine our credibility or our image.”

Aird tells a story of one business that was singled out for a safety audit recently because of the high number of workers’ compensation claims it generated. After examining the shop’s operating culture, day-in, day-out, and devising safety improvements at almost every level, the shop managers found that addressing health and safety-and building those strategies into their operations-actually raised the quality of the work and service.
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If you have someone with a lot of aches and pains doing their job, and who thinks management is completely unsympathetic to the challenges they face, it’s hard to do a good job,” he says. “By building safety practices into your operations, you can actually improve your bottom line.”