OSHA 10 · General industry
Bring the right card to plant and warehouse work: the general industry 10-hour.
If you work in a factory, mill, warehouse, distribution center, or maintenance facility, the outreach card people ask for is OSHA 10 general industry. The construction 10-hour is a different industry procedure. The wrong card costs you a week.
Take general industry outreach training if your employer wants the DOL card for a plant-floor or warehouse role, or if a customer requires it for contractors working inside an operating facility.
Find out whether your plant role needs the card
- Roles: machine operators, material handlers, mechanics, plant electricians, sanitation staff, warehouse pickers, and their supervisors.
- Contractors: those servicing equipment under 1910 rules often need it.
- Forklifts: warehouse trucks fall under 1910.178. The 10-hour may cover them as an elective; it does not replace your employer’s hands-on evaluation.
- Next step: the 30-hour general industry class for supervisors and safety leads.
Learn the six core hours that apply on a plant floor
| Required | Introduction to OSHA; walking-working surfaces, including fall protection; exit routes and fire; electrical; PPE; hazard communication. |
|---|---|
| Common electives | Lockout-tagout, machine guarding, powered industrial vehicles, confined spaces, materials handling. |
| Standards cited | 1910, not 1926. Lockout is 1910.147. |
If your class skips energy isolation or forklifts, get that training from your employer before you touch a press or drive a truck.
Earn a valid card online over at least two days
Online OSHA 10 general industry is available from OSHA-authorized providers. Self-paced online outreach is limited to those authorized platforms. A live authorized trainer can still teach in a room or by other allowed methods; they cannot post an asynchronous recording online and call it the program.
Student contact time is capped at 7.5 hours per calendar day, so the 10-hour class takes at least two days.
Expect paced modules, quizzes, and identity checks. Finish with an authorized provider and that provider’s process issues the Department of Labor outreach card. OSHA does not sell seats and does not endorse a particular vendor.
Keep the card from standing in for your plant’s programs
Your plant still needs an energy-control procedure, a hazard-communication program, and powered-industrial-truck training that matches the trucks you drive. Many employers use the 10-hour card to show you completed hazard-awareness training. It does not replace those programs.
If you split time between a shutdown (construction-like work) and production, ask which card the host employer wants. Bring both if they will not pick one.
Related: OSHA 10 construction · Authorized online providers · Lockout-tagout