What Will You Learn During DOT Hazmat Training?
If you work with hazardous materials, whether it is as a truck driver, material handler, or something else, it is the responsibility of your employer to ensure you have had the proper hazmat training. For the most part, it will be up to your employer to decide what areas of training you should have and then follow through with helping you get enrolled in training courses. Therefore, hazmat training requirements can be slightly different for every employee. However, there are some basics that pretty much every enrolled trainee will be exposed to during their DOT hazmat training.
General Hazmat Awareness
Knowing exactly how your job position fits into the whole scheme of things in a company that handles hazardous materials is hugely important. Therefore, you will learn a great deal about general hazmat awareness and how your job role functions within that system of awareness. Even if you are merely a transporter and you do not directly handle the materials physically with your hands, you will be taught about the different handling procedures and how the different roles between specific types of handlers can interact with one another on a daily basis.
Hazmat Safety Training
Perhaps the biggest part of your training time will be spent learning about safety when working with hazardous materials in various job settings. There are a number of subtopics that you will need to know as part of your training. You may learn:
- Different risk factors associated with different materials
- How to recognize and differentiate one material from another
- What type of safety gear is required when handling certain materials
- How to react during material spills or material emergencies
- Which materials can pose the biggest threats when improperly handled
Hazmat Security Awareness
When you are dealing with hazardous materials on the job, there is a certain level of threat present because of the fact that those with ill intent can see the hazardous materials as a tool. For example, a group of terrorists may see an explosive material as an open target that could allow them to cause a tremendous amount of damage. Because there are these types of threats in the modern world, all DOT hazmat trainees will be taught a bit about how to be aware of the security threats in certain situations. DOT training will prepare one, for example, a truck driver responsible for unloading materials will be taught how to recognize suspicious activity around a loading dock.
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