Safety First

SAFETY: Associated with UST Work

Committed to the Facility owners/operators

TesTank Inc. is committed to safely performing our services while on your facility. We have developed our Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP) with our customers’ need for onsite safety and are happy to share this Safety Plan upon request.

Our uniformed personnel will arrive at your site in a company-owned and insured vehicle with high-visibility Graphics, Red trucks with white graphics, or White Trucks with red graphics. It will be clear that our proprietary 2-20# ABC Fire Extinguishers/14 Traffic Cones combination racks mounted on our trucks create a safety forcing function so that these crucial Safety devices become First Down-Last Up items. Every Truck has a hazard Class 1 Division 1 certified flashlight, the Pelican 3415 model. Each truck also has a Certified Safety Mfg. #K622-637 ANSI Z308.1-2015 Class A First Aid Kit in a Milwaukee Pack Out 48-22-8435 Mounting Case. These crucial-to-locate when needed items are mounted in the exact location of every truck cab. Our Testing vehicles all have 12each 6’ long expanding traffic cone spreader bars to cordon off work areas against accidental pedestrian entry.

Committed to our Employees

TesTank Inc. is committed to providing a safe work environment for our employees under diverse safety challenges. Our work environment is not static but constantly shifting during any day’s workload. During the day, our crews may move from an aircraft refueling site to a hospital emergency generator fuel storage system, a QuikTrip-type C-Store environment, or a middle-of-nowhere farmers' co-op fuel facility.

Our individual personnel are furnished with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that is not for sharing but is to be individually maintained and kept with the person. These Items are High viz Safety Vests/Jackets (summer and winter version), Long Sleeve Shirts (summer and winter versions), mechanics type work gloves, disposable gloves (in a dispenser on the Trucks), rain suites, goggles, face shields, safety glasses, knee and kneeling pads, ear plugs, Hard Hats or Bump caps, Fall Protection harness. Our proprietary hand wash/eye rinse fluid combination station is on every testing truck.

Committed to Permit Required Confined Space Entry Continuity

Just in the past few years the Petroleum Equipment Institute, Major Equipment Manufacturers and other stakeholders have begun to emphasize safety factors associated with the PRCS spaces at Gasoline Dispensing Facilities. You can now observe the increasing awareness tactics on our industry’s websites, in on-line training modules and in written installation and maintenance documents.

As a trusted and invited member of our tank-owning-customers regulatory compliance team, TesTank Inc., has maintained trust by staying abreast of more obscure regulations that pertain to our industry but are not as readily visible if only reviewed in the Federal or State UST rules. We discipline ourselves to investigate codes that seem to be less discussed in our industry, such as OSHA, Fire Safety Codes, Weights and Measures Codes, etc. This expanded research lets us execute our customer directives to perform our tasks while at their facilities according to safety laws. We educate our personnel about safety issues and provide equipment dedicated to their safety. We can prove we are supporting both the desire and the demand for Safety when it comes to the PRCS entry spaces owned by our customers.

Since June 2014, TesTank Inc. has required our testing personnel to receive training pertinent to OSHA regulations found in 29 CFR 1910.146, Permit Required Confined Space Entry.

Early in their training cycle, all newly employed testing trainees are enrolled in the OSHA #2264 course at the OSHA Institute Education Center on the University of Texas-Arlington campus. They receive 22 hours of hands-on and classroom instruction with certification for PRCS entry, meeting OSHA, ANSI, and EM 385 -1-1 requirements. Everyone attends this fixed-plan course, and we have witnessed that this brings continuity to our PRCS entry program.

This continuity of training means the newest trainee becomes a “stakeholder” in his own safety, and that they are positioned to bring intelligent input to the decision processes. When tasks requiring ENTRY into one of these types of spaces are determined at the facility, our personnel teams diligently adhere to the requisite planning of entry. Team size stipulations, training requirements with certifications, permit procedures, and special safety equipment needs (4-gas monitors, rescue tripods, fresh air blowers) are considered. The team must be in unanimous agreement with all the preparations for entry, the actual entry, and the task procedures to be accomplished while in the PRCS. Adhering to the permit, which by regulation is created while on site, any of the team is authorized to call for a total STOP and safe shutdown of the ENTRY.

We have been gathering field data into our database since 2014 and are willing and able to share this information with our customers/tank owners. We don’t just say a space meets the requirements for complying with PRCS entry protocols; we provide verifiable data. Our records indicate that our deepest PRCS entry has been 126”.