# Union Tank Car Company — Hazardous Materials Safety Interpretation

- **operation:** document
- **citation:** 09-0179
- **title:** Union Tank Car Company — Hazardous Materials Safety Interpretation
- **source type:** guidance
- **agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
- **status:** guidance
- **official:** true
- **published on:** 2009-09-17
- **effective on:** Not available
- **summary:** 09-0179 response to Union Tank Car Company concerning 179.7.
- **machine formats:** - **json:** https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-09-0179.json
- **markdown:** https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-09-0179.md
- **app url:** https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-09-0179
- **source url:** https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretations/2009/090179.pdf
**body:**

<<<PAGE 1>>>

U.S. Department of Transportation
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration
1200 New Jersey Ave. S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20590
Gary Alderson
Union Tank Car Company
PO Box 2003
Altoona, PA 16603
Ref. No. 09-0 179
Dear Mr. Alderson:
This responds to your August 3,2009 email requesting clarification of the Hazardous
Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171 - 180) applicable to training. Specifically,
you ask if the quality assurance training specified in 8 179.7(e) for employees of tank car
facilities is subject to the same initial and recurrent training, testing, and recordkeeping
requirements as specified in the general training requirements in Subpart H of Part 172.
The answer is yes. Section 179.7 requires each tank car facility to have a quality assurance
program and specifies the minimum elements that must be included in the program. Each
tank car facility must ensure that each employee is trained in accordance with Subpart H of
Part 172 in the quality assurance program and procedures. Therefore, each employee must
receive initial and recurrent training, each employee must be tested. and each tank car facility
must maintain training records in the manner specified in Subpart H of Part 172.
I hope this information is helpful. If you have further questions, please contact this office.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Betts
Chief, Standards Development
of Hazardous Materials Standards

<<<PAGE 2>>>

Drakeford, Carolyn (PHMSA) From: INFOCNTR (PHMSA)
Sent: Monday, August 03,2009 11 :24 AM
To: Drakeford, Carolyn (PHMSA)
Subject: FW: quality assurance training
4 172 -702 70q
6 179. .?
Ce 1
-
Carolyn,
Thanks,
Rob
This gentleman would like a written letter of interpretation on the issue addressed below.
----- Original Message-----
From: Gary Alderson [mailto:Alderson@utlx.com]
Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 10:25 AM
To: INFOCNTR (PHMSA)
Subject: quality assurance training
We (Union Tank Car Company) have a hazmat training program for our
employees and we train and test them in accordance with 49 CFR Part 172
Subpart H. We also provide our hazmat employees with the quality assurance
training specified in 179.7 (e), but I am requesting an interpretation on
the regulation as it is currently written.
I don't interpret the regulation as requiring the quality assurance
training specified in 179.7 (e) to have the same testing, initial training,
recurrent training and record keeping as specified in 172 Subpart H for
general awareness, function-specific, safety training, security and
in-depth security training.
My question on the interpretation of 49 CFR 179.7 (e) is;
Does the quality assurance training specified in 49 CFR 179.7 (e) require
the same testing specified in 49 CFR 172.702 (d) and the same initial, and
recurrent training requirements specified in 49 CFR 172.704 (5) (c) ( I ) ,
(i) , (ii) , and (2) ? Also, does the record keeping requirement of 49 CFR
172.704 (5) (d) apply when conducting the quality assurance training?
I look forward to your interpretation.
Sincere1 y,
Gary Alderson
Gary Alderson
Manager - Quality Processes
Repair Service Business Unit
Phone 814-944-4523 X-549
Fax 814-944-0737
Cell 219-369-3028
alderson@utlx.com
- **truncated:** false
- **body characters:** 3200
