According to a legal firm that specializes in workplace safety \u2013 truck drivers that are out on the road driving are subject to Department of Transportation regulations, not OSHA standards, therefore the Biden Administration\u2019s vaccine mandate should not apply while they\u2019re out on the road.<\/p>\n
Companies with 100 or more employees will be required to\u00a0comply with President Joe Biden’s COVID vaccine mandate<\/a>\u00a0by no later than Jan. 4, 2022, according to the\u00a0Emergency Temporary Standard that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is expected to\u00a0publish in the\u00a0<\/a>Federal Register<\/em><\/a>\u00a0Friday, Nov. 5<\/a>.<\/p>\n Multiple trucking industry agencies had sought an exemption, claiming mandatory vaccine enforcement would place additional pressure on a supply chain that is already under duress, but those calls and warnings went unheeded.<\/p>\n However, CCJ magazine reports that attorneys at Fisher Phillips have echoed the American Trucking Association\u2019s stance that drivers would not be covered by the federal rule.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you’re not in the office very often, you’d only have to have a negative [COVID] test within the seven days before you come into the workplace. They’ve carved out those employees that are not there very much,\u201d said Travis Vance, a Fisher Phillips partner and co-host of his law firm\u2019s media webinar that explored the vaccine mandate.<\/p>\n American Trucking Associations (ATA) agreed. \u00ab\u00a0The rule published today should not impact employees who work alone and have minimal contact with others indoors. In our view, that exemption should cover the commercial truck driver population, and we are seeking further guidance from OSHA to clarify and confirm that,\u00a0\u00bb the group said in a statement Thursday night.<\/p>\n However, drivers that report back to a company where 100 or more employees work must either show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test within the past seven days.<\/p>\n It gets a little trickier for truckers when they make deliveries, stated CCJ.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a driver delivers to the warehouse, they are still under DOT and not OSHA at that point,\u201d Vance said. Fisher Phillips partner Todd Logsdon agreed, so long as the driver remains inside the truck.<\/p>\n \u201cIf he [the driver] gets out of the truck and goes to the loading dock, then I think he could be covered by OSHA,\u201d Logsdon said.<\/p>\n Vance added, \u201cIt just depends if it’s his own workplace or somebody else’s. There’s a lot of different variables there.\u201d<\/p>\n