Every dealership leader I talk to cares about their people. That’s never the question. The question is whether your environmental health and safety (EHS) program is actually set up to protect them, day in and day out, in ways that hold up when OSHA shows up or an employee gets hurt.
After years working alongside dealerships on their safety and workplace safety programs, I’ve seen the same truth play out again and again: caring about your team and protecting your bottom line are not two different goals. They’re the same goal. A strong EHS compliance program keeps people safe and keeps your dealership financially healthy. Here’s what that looks like in practice, and what’s changed heading into 2026.
Your Ex-Mod Reflects How Well You’re Caring for Your People
Your Experience Modification Rate, or Ex-Mod, is one of the clearest signals of how well your workplace safety program is actually working. It compares your workers’ compensation loss experience to what’s expected for a business like yours. A rate of 1.00 is the benchmark. Below that, you’re protecting your team better than expected. Above it, both your people and your business are absorbing the cost.
The formula is straightforward: take your number of indemnity cases, divide by your average employee count, multiply by 100, then divide by the Bureau of Labor Statistics incident rate for your NAICS code. A dealership with just two wage-replacement claims and 70 employees can land at an Ex-Mod of 3.57, far above where anyone wants to be.
That number has real weight behind it. On a $100,000 manual workers’ comp premium, a 0.80 Ex-Mod brings your cost down to $80,000. A 3.57 Ex-Mod pushes it to $357,000. Same dealership, same headcount, an entirely different financial reality. Every incident we prevent through good occupational safety practices is a person who goes home whole and a cost your business never has to carry.
Understanding OSHA Compliance: Why Inspections Happen
OSHA inspections usually aren’t random, and understanding what triggers one is part of taking care of your people proactively. Visits happen for three reasons: imminent danger like severe injuries and fatality investigations, complaints or referrals, and programmed inspections. That third category deserves your attention, because OSHA currently prioritizes hazardous industries and employers showing a high volume of workers’ compensation claims. In other words, the same gaps driving up your Ex-Mod are often the same gaps drawing regulatory scrutiny.
The most common OSHA citations dealerships are facing right now point to everyday hazard areas: fall protection, hazard communication, ladders, lockout/tagout, respiratory protection, scaffolding, powered industrial trucks, eye and face protection, and machine guarding. Each one represents a place where a simple safeguard, a clear procedure, or a bit of training could have kept someone from getting hurt.
The penalties for falling short are significant. In 2026, a serious violation can run up to $16,550. A willful violation can reach $165,514. Failure to abate a known hazard adds up to $16,550 per day it remains uncorrected.
We’ve watched this play out with real dealerships. One was recently cited $78,000 across six violations: missing eye wash stations, damaged electrical cords, outlets in wet areas, missing signage, and gaps in training. Another was fined $25,000 after an employee slipped on an oily floor, compounded by a missed 24-hour reporting window for the resulting hospital stay. A third paid $10,000 for not having accessible safety data sheets in the detail department, a gap that also meant employees hadn’t completed hazard communication training.
If your dealership does receive a citation, you generally have two paths forward: requesting a reduction in severity, from serious to other-than-serious, or requesting a reduction in the fine itself. An inspector is unlikely to grant both. What genuinely helps, both for your team and for your standing with OSHA, is showing real remediation and a credible plan to prevent it from happening again.
Injury Prevention Starts Below the Surface
I like to think of workplace injury prevention as a pyramid. For every serious injury or fatality at the top, there are roughly 10 lost-time incidents, 100 medical-only cases, 1,000 near misses, and 10,000 unsafe behaviors or hazards underneath. The incidents at the top get documented. The ones at the bottom, where the real opportunity to protect people lives, usually don’t.
In automotive specifically, strains and sprains account for close to a quarter of injuries, followed by lacerations and punctures, bruises and contusions, and a large “unknown” category that tells us there’s still room to strengthen how incidents get investigated and recorded.
Based on our work with dealerships across the country, three categories consistently drive the most significant claims, and each one is something we can address together:
- Slips, trips, and falls. Keep walking surfaces clear, clean spills right away, repair uneven surfaces, secure rugs and mats, require appropriate footwear, and make sure lighting and stairwell handrails meet the OSHA standard.
- Improper lifting. Assess the load before moving it, use mechanical assistance when it’s available, keep a stable stance, bend at the knees, lift smoothly, and carry the load close to the body without twisting.
- Auto accidents. Seat belt and cell phone policies, posted speed limits, driver training, defined test drive routes, and mirror checks for blind spots all meaningfully reduce risk. Dealers across Louisiana brought the total incurred cost down from roughly $659,000 in 2023 to $163,000 in 2025, even as incident counts held fairly steady, largely by tightening these everyday practices.
The thread running through all of it is the same five-part framework we encourage every client to build around: leadership commitment, worker participation, an effective reporting system, thoughtful investigation and analysis when something happens, and genuine follow-through on corrective action and communication. Safety programs work best when people feel supported enough to speak up, not just told to comply.
What’s New in EHS Regulation for 2026
OSHA renewed its National Emphasis Program on Heat Illness in April 2026, effective for five years. It now explicitly covers Automotive Repair and Maintenance (NAICS 8111) and Other Motor Vehicle Dealers (NAICS 4412), while removing New Car Dealers and Automotive Parts Stores from its scope. The program addresses both indoor and outdoor heat-related workplace hazards and establishes heat priority days whenever the heat index is expected to reach 80°F or higher. OSHA is currently enforcing this through the General Duty Clause, and it’s widely seen as the foundation for a forthcoming federal heat illness rule.
Mobile repair technicians deserve extra care and attention, too. Unlike a technician working in your shop, a mobile technician doesn’t control their environment. Uneven surfaces, traffic, and missing safety equipment all raise their risk. Look after them by making sure they’re equipped with proper PPE, high-visibility vests, portable fire extinguishers, first aid kits, traffic cones, wheel chocks, spill kits, and safety data sheets.
And if third parties work in your dealership, whether it’s a detail crew or a mobile service provider, put your shared safety responsibilities in writing. We’ve seen this matter in practice more than once, when a third-party employee understandably expects the same protection as your own team.
Safety Is How We Take Care of Our People
A strong EHS compliance program isn’t a box to check. It’s how we show our teams, every single day, that their wellbeing matters as much as the work they do. It also happens to protect your Ex-Mod, your OSHA standing, and your bottom line. When you invest in workplace safety, you’re investing in the people who make your dealership run.
If you’d like to talk through where your dealership stands, our team of EHS experts at KPA is here to help.
