PHMSA Response Letter

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February 10, 2011

Ms. Merrie Schilperoort
Hazardous Materials Transportation
Training Manager
Energy Solutions
2345 Stevens Drive, Suite 240
Richland, WA 99354

Ref. No. 10-0122

Dear Ms. Schilperoort:

This responds to your letter requesting clarification of the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180) applicable to record keeping requirements for training. Specifically, you ask whether a hazmat employer must be able to furnish on demand a copy of the test given to one of its hazmat employees used to satisfy its training responsibility under § 172.702(d). You indicate in your letter that such a requirement does not appear to be in accordance with the recordkeeping provisions for training prescribed in § 172.704(d).

The answer is no. As specified in § 172.702(d), a hazmat employer must ensure that each of its hazmat employees is tested by appropriate means on the training subjects covered in § 172.704. As specified in § 172.704(d), a record of current training, inclusive of the preceding three years, must be created and retained by a hazmat employer for as long as that employee is employed by that employer as a hazmat employee and for 90 days thereafter. At a minimum, the training record must include what is specified in paragraph (d); the test taken by a hazmat employee is not one of those items required to be retained.

I trust this satisfies your inquiry. Please contact us if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

T. Glenn Foster
Chief, Regulatory Review and Reinvention Branch
Standards and Rulemaking Division

172.704