Reference

Custom wording does not create a custom exemption: a sign you wrote owes exactly the same class, colour, construction and wording duties as one you bought. This ten-step design checklist works through them in order, and names the defect that damages a sign set most, which is DANGER placed on a hazard that is merely potential.

No OSHA standard requires a rack load capacity plaque; ANSI MH16.1 does, and it places the duty on the rack owner rather than on the manufacturer or installer. This guide walks a distribution centre zone by zone, from the dock through to the electrical panels, stating for each what is required, by whom, and what the recurring defect is.

No OSHA standard requires a second language on a safety sign, and OSHA has confirmed it requires no English either. What it requires is comprehension. This decision guide walks the branch points in order, from surveying who is actually exposed to choosing symbols over translation, and records why each choice is defensible.

LED flare kits are widely sold as DOT approved, and they are not. This guide gives the FMVSS No. 125 construction specification a triangle must actually meet, the 49 CFR 392.22 placement geometry for two-lane and divided highways, and the FMCSA exemption record that explains where the claim comes from and why it does not generalise.

Cargo securement is two independent tests and you must pass both: a minimum tiedown count under 49 CFR 393.110, and an aggregate working load limit of at least half the cargo weight under 393.106(d). This guide walks both with real numbers, and explains why the break-strength figure on the packaging must never enter the calculation.

Neither of the two OSHA standards governing compressed gas cylinder storage contains a requirement to post a sign at the storage area. This guide gives what they do require, names the four separate sources that compel the signage facilities actually need, and maps signs to hazard class with the NFPA 704 diamond decoded.

The label on a machine and the sign on the wall share signal words and colours but belong to different standards, with different owners and different replacement duties. This guide contrasts ANSI Z535.4 and Z535.2 point by point, then walks the relabelling of a rebuilt machine whose original label set was lost to paint.

Inspection tagging has drifted into folk practice, and most of the tags on a typical rack satisfy no federal requirement at all. This guide sorts them equipment by equipment into required, evidence of a required inspection, and pure convention, then gives the hard specification that the tags OSHA does compel by name have to meet.

Wheel chocks are required by OSHA in three specific situations, none of them in the DOT vehicle equipment rules. This guide gives the exact citations, the quarter-diameter sizing convention and what overrides it, the difference between a vehicle chock and a pallet-jack chock, and how to place a chock so it actually holds.

FMCSA amended 393.95 twice in 2026, both times by deletion: liquid-burning flares ceased to be an accepted warning device in March, and the spare-fuse requirement was removed in April. This guide gives what the section still requires, the extinguisher ratings and condition rules, and the 392.22 placement patterns for every road type.

Exit signage is one of the few places where general industry and construction genuinely diverge on the specification of the same object, and the divergence runs the opposite way to what most people expect. This guide sets 1910.37(b) and 1926.200(d) side by side, adds the NFPA 101 compliance route, and walks a mixed-site audit.

Almost every floor marking colour chart in circulation cites an OSHA standard that does not contain what is attributed to it. This guide labels each claim myth or fact with the actual citation attached, shows which floor markings genuinely are mandatory and why, and presents the colour convention clearly as convention rather than as law.