{"operation":"document","citation":"14-0134","title":"General Electric — Hazardous Materials Safety Interpretation","source_type":"guidance","agency":"Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration","status":"guidance","official":true,"published_on":"2015-03-23","effective_on":null,"summary":"14-0134 response to General Electric concerning 171.8, 180.513.","machine_formats":{"json":"https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-14-0134.json","markdown":"https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-14-0134.md"},"app_url":"https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-14-0134","source_url":"https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretation%20Files/2015/140134.pdf","body":"<<<PAGE 1>>>\n\nU.S. Department of Transportation\nPipeline and Hazardous Materials\nWashington, DC 20590\n1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE\nSafety Administration\nBridgette A. Lobstein\nExecutive Vice President\nOperations Leader - Rail Services\nMAR 2 3 2015\nGeneral Electric\n161 N. Clark St.\nChicago, IL 60601\nRef. No.: 14-0134\nDear Ms. Lobstein:\nThis is in response to your July 3, 2014 letter requesting clarification of the Hazardous\nMaterials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171 - 180) applicable to the definition of a\n\"hazmat employee\" and the training requirements of Subpart H of Part 172 of the HMR.\nIn your incoming letter, you state your business is divided into functions: Sales, Contract\nAdministration, Business Development, Government Relations, Operations, Finance, Asset\nManagement/Marketing, Compliance, Legal, Information Technology (IT) Systems, and\nHuman Resources. The principle mission of serving your customers is through your Sales,\nContract Administration, and Operations divisions. The Sales Team maintains customer\nrelationships with the various industries served by the business. The Contract\nAdministration Team provides customer relations support for the Sales Team on leases and\nbilling. Operations includes oversight of shop management, car flow, fleet management,\nprocurement, regulatory quality and compliance, Environmental Health and Safety, and\nEngineering. You state that you consider only Operations employees to be hazmat\nemployees, and ask for clarification of a \"hazmat employee\" as defined by § 171.8 of the\nHMR. You also ask whether employees at the General Electric (GE) Railcar Services\nChicago headquarters should be considered hazmat employees and subject to the quality\nassurance program (QAP) training requirements of 49 CFR Part 179.7.\nIn the scenario you describe, GE Railcar Services repairs, qualifies, and maintains a fleet of\ntank cars through its affiliated companies at locations (shops and mobile units) owned by\nGE Rail Services or third party providers. Some of the activities supporting the repair,\nmaintenance, qualification, and marking of the GERS tank car fleet are performed at the\nChicago headquarters (HQ) by personnel employed in different business units such as\nSales, Contract Administration, and Operations.\nExamples of these activities are:\nSales and/or Contract Administration personnel who confirm the ownership of tank\n180.513.\ncar service equipment and interior coatings and linings required by 49 CFR Part\n\n<<<PAGE 2>>>\n\nSales and/or Contract Administration personnel who approve the use of\nqualification and maintenance procedures developed by GE or third parties required\nby 49 CFR Part 180.513.\nSales and/or Contract Administration personnel who apply for Federal Railroad\nAdministration (FRA) One Time Movement Approvals for nonconforming tank\ncars required by 49 CFR Part 174.50.\n4.\nEngineering and Purchasing personnel who develop and approve written procedures\nfor the repair, alteration, conversion, qualification and maintenance of tank cars,\npurchase replacement service equipment and gaskets required by 49 CFR 179.9 and\n49 CFR Parts 180.501 through 180.517.\nPer § 171.8, a \"hazmat employee\" is defined as a person employed by a hazmat employer\nand who, in the course of their employment, loads, unloads, or handles hazardous\nmaterials; designs, manufactures, fabricates, inspects, marks, maintains, reconditions,\nrepairs, or tests a package, container or packaging component that is represented, marked,\ncertified, or sold as qualified for use in transporting hazardous material in commerce or\ndirectly affects hazardous materials transportation safety.\nThis Office agrees that your Operations workers would be considered hazmat employees.\nIn other words, a person who performs duties that are regulated under the HMR is\nconsidered to be a hazmat employee. Persons who, in the normal course of their\nemployment, perform or manage the work of those performing, one or more of the\nactivities listed above would be considered hazmat employees and require general\nawareness, function-specific, safety/, security awareness and quality assurance program\nrequired by 49 CFR 172.704 and 49 CFR 179.7 within 90 days of employment and every\nthree years thereafter.\nBy contrast, we also note that sales/contracts employees would generally not be hazmat\nemployees. For example, those persons who would not be considered hazmat employees\nwould be Customer Service personnel whose only involvement in the tank car repair,\nqualification, and maintenance process is to send previously approved qualification,\nmaintenance, and/or repair procedures to third party shops for use on GE tank cars unless\nthey were also instrumental in securing FRA One Time Movement Approvals.\nI trust this satisfies your inquiry. Please contact us if we can be of further assistance.\nSincerely,\nI Aenso roster\nT. Glenn Foster\nChief, Regulatory Review and Reinvention Branch\nStandards and Rulemaking Division\n\n<<<PAGE 3>>>\n\nAndrews\n171.8,179.7\nDefinitions\nGE Capital\n14-0134\nExecutive Vice President\nBrigitte A. Lobstein\nOperations Leader\nJuly 3, 2014\nRail Services\n161 N Clark Street\nChicago, IL 60601\nUSA\nOffice of Hazardous Materials Safety\nT +1 312 853 5295\nPipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration\nbrigitte.lobstein@ge.com\nF +1 312 853 5019\nU.S. Department of Transportation\n1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE\nEast Building, 2nd Floor\nWashington, DC 20590\nTo whom it may concern:\nBy way of introduction, I am the Operations Leader for General Electric Railcar Services\nCorporation and its affiliates, including General Electric Railcar Repair Services Corporation\n(collectively \"GE Rail Services\"). Larry Strouse, Railroad Safety Specialist of the Federal\nRailroad Administration has suggested that I ask for clarification of the definition of \"hazmat\nemployee\" as set forth in 49 CFR § 171.8.\nSpecifically, GE Rail Services is seeking to understand PHMSA's interpretation of the QAP\ntraining requirements set forth in Section 179.7 (applicable to \"tank car facilities\") and how, if\nat all, they would apply to the corporate headquarters of GE Rail Services as a tank car\nowner.\nBy way of background, GE Rail Services is wholly owned by General Electric Capital\nCorporation, the financial services arm of General Electric. GE Rail Services consists primarily\nof two entities: General Electric Railcar Services Corporation which owns our railcar fleet,\nand General Electric Railcar Repair Services Corporation, which owns our railcar repair\nshops.\nGE Rail Services provides financial products to the rail industry. These include operating\nleases, finance leases, and loan products. Operating lease products offer several financial\nbenefits to our customers, including those related to short term (relative to the asset life)\nusage of the equipment. In order to offer, operating lease products, GE Rail Services owns\nthe equipment which it offers for lease (approximately 110,000 railcars and 1,100\nlocomotives). In conjunction with this product, GE Rail Services offers maintenance and\nrepair services for its equipment. This offering is made through its network of owned and\nthird party contract shops. GE Rail Services oversees its shop networks through engineering\nsupport, process oversight, training, and quality audits. It should be noted that GE Rail\nServices does not offer maintenance and repair services to third party cars owners except\non an incidental basis.\nGeneral Electric Rolcar Services Corporation\n\n<<<PAGE 4>>>\n\nThe corporate headquarters of GE Rail Services is located in downtown Chicago, IL. There\nare approximately 180 employees located there. Organizationally, the business is divided\ninto functions: Sales, Contract Administration, Business Development, Government Relations,\nOperations, Finance, Asset Management/Marketing, Compliance, Legal, IT (Systems), and\nHuman Resources. These functions serve two principal stakeholder groups: the business'\nshareholder GE Capital, and the customer base. Much of the work done at headquarters\ninvolves addressing the needs and concerns of those two groups. Charged with the\nprincipal missions of serving the customer are: Sales, Contract (Lease) Administration, and\nOperations. The Sales team is traditionally an organization that maintains customer\nrelationships with the various industries served by the business agriculture, grain, coal,\nchemicals, crude oil, pulp and paper). The Contract Administration provides customer\nrelations support for the Sales team, handling customer concerns and questions regarding\ntheir leases, bills etc. during the term of the customer leases. It should be noted that both\nSales and Contract Administration do not address equipment-related issues: these are\nhandled by Operations. Operations includes oversight of the following activities: shop\nmanagement, car flow, fleet management, procurement, regulatory quality and compliance,\nEH&S, and engineering. All of the employees in Operations in our corporate headquarters\nfor the field shop operations.\nare salaried employees (as opposed to hourly) and do either supervisory or technical support\nI give the above general description to give context to our question of whether employees at\nthe corporate headquarters should be considered hazmat employees for purposes of the\nregulations. We consider only Operations employees to be hazmat employees. We have\nalso conducted general awareness training for all headquarters employees. We do this\nregulatory compliance.\nbecause GE Rail Services strives to be an industry leader in the areas of safety, quality and\nWe believe that this is matter of importance to the leasing industry. We would be happy to\nmeet with you to discuss our business and this issue in greater depth.\nI would like to thank you in advance for your guidance to ensure our compliance with the\nregulations.\nSincerely,\nPugle sti\nBrigitte A. Lobstein","truncated":false,"body_characters":9866}