Crane Rule Deadline Nearing, NPGA Says, “Help Us Keep the Pressure On”

The propane industry’s long-running struggle to gain an exemption from, or at least another delay of implementation of, a component of the Crane Rule is nearing a key juncture. As this was written in early September, the compliance deadline for third-party certification of employees who use cranes was scheduled to go into effect Nov. 10.

“The Crane Rule unnecessarily burdens the propane industry with over $151 million in compliance costs every five years,” says Michael Baker, director, legislative affairs with the National Propane Gas Association (NPGA). “This is significant for an industry predominantly composed of small businesses that supply a valuable domestic energy.”

Long opposed by members of the propane industry, this component of the Crane Rule—the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Cranes and Derricks in Construction standard—requires crane operator training and certification every five years by a third-party organization.

NPGA opposes application of the Crane Rule to propane tank deliveries and retrievals. The group notes that propane tank delivery and retrieval is not related to construction activities; crane responsibilities make up only a small portion of retail marketer employees’ overall job duties; and the industry already offers programs for crane safety training.

“We don’t need certification. We are properly trained and we are safety-oriented,” says Chris Earhart, president of Dixie Gas & Oil Corp. (Verona, Va.) and chairman of NPGA. “We do continual training. We do it in-house, with the training material that is available, and we have factory people come in and help with training. We keep our folks up on how to utilize the equipment, as everyone in the industry does.

“I can truly verify what NPGA says about the cost of third-party certification,” he adds. “There would be several additional costs: we would have to pay a certifier to do it; we would have to take folks to a different site, so we would have to pay the costs of mileage and staying overnight; and some programs are multi-day, so those employees would be out of service for two or three days. We’re not just training one person; we must train multiple people in order to better serve the customer.

“In addition, I think the crane industry is not ready to handle additional training. We have explored what third-party certification would be. We have checked in Virginia and other states, and we have found that a lot of the inspectors are not certified on articulating cranes. Some of them don’t have the equipment either, so we would have to provide it.

“This will cost the consumer, ultimately,” Earhart says. “That’s why we support what NPGA is doing.”

NPGA notes that the Propane Education & Research Council (PERC) has offered a Mobile Crane Safety Training program since 2012, and many marketers already utilize it. That program doesn’t have a third-party certification component, so it doesn’t satisfy that requirement of the Crane Rule.

As the compliance deadline nears, members of the industry are pushing for another delay of enforcement and ultimately exemption from the rule. The enforcement date of the third-party certification requirement has been delayed twice before. Initially set for 2014, the deadline was extended for three years (to 2017) and then for another year (to 2018).

The industry’s efforts to gain exemption or another delay have included submission of comments to OSHA and support of a bill in the U.S. House (HR 5988) that would exempt propane from the Crane Rule.

“NPGA is continuing to serve as the industry’s advocacy organization with aggressive efforts to exclude the propane industry from the Crane Rule, especially the third-party certification requirement,” Baker says. He noted that the propane industry has sent more than 2000 letters to Congress and more than 1000 comments to OSHA. When OSHA announced its most recent proposal that included several changes to the Crane Rule, almost 90% of the comments submitted were from propane employees.

In addition, Baker adds, several members of Congress have engaged on behalf of the industry; they include Reps. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.), Bob Latta (R-Ohio), Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), and Sens. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and others.

“We encourage marketers to continue calling on all members of Congress to exclude propane tank deliveries/retrievals,” Baker concludes.

Earhart of Dixie Gas & Oil says, “We have been sending letters to congressmen; we went to Propane Days, where this was the top issue; and we helped NPGA make a crane video that shows people who don’t know how we use cranes, what the differences are.

“NPGA continues to work as hard as we can; we haven’t slowed up on any front,” Earhart adds. “We want to thank everyone for all the support they have given. We also want to ask them to help us keep the pressure on.”

For more information, call NPGA at (202) 466-7200 or email Michael Baker at

‘; . —Steve Relyea