title: [Workplace safety in private companies of freights and on the road workers: comparison between small and medium enterprises].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The road freight and passenger transport sector exposes the workers of this sector to a considerable health risk. Application of the relative legislation to safeguard worker's safety is an obligation for the employer.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the study was to assess the application of current legislation in the trucking sector and ascertain whether there are differences between large and small enterprises.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was conducted through direct interview with managers of road freight and passenger transport companies in the Lazio Region in 2009. Information was collected using a questionnaire composed of 77 items concerning risk assessment and organization aspects in the enterprises. The enterprisers were stratified by number of workers and drivers. To detect possible associations the Chi-squared and Fisher's Exact tests were used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 42 enterprisers participated in the study. Significant differences were found between larger enterprisers (10 workers) and smaller enterprises (< 10 workers), concerning risk assessment from vibrations (p = 0.006), night work (p = 0.026), microclimatic conditions (p = 0.047). Regarding risk prevention/management aspects, the enterprisers with a higher number of workers were more likely to have a workers' representative for safety compared to the smaller enterprises (respectively 88.9% versus 50.0%) and a road accidents Register (77.8% versus 16.7%), with p < 0.001 significance levels.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The risks most frequently assessed, in decreasing order, were: vibrations, manual handling of loads, stress, noise, awkward postures, night work, alcohol consumption, drug addiction and microclimatic conditions. Vibrations, night work and microclimatic conditions risks were assessed to a lower degree in the smaller enterprisers compared to the larger enterprises.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Sanità Pubblica e Malattie Infettive, Sapienza Università di Roma.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mannocci
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gabrijelcic
authors.forename: Domitilla
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Di Thiene
authors.forename: Rosella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Saulle
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boccia
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: La Torre
mesh_terms: D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017149:Private Sector; D014186:Transportation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017132:Workplace / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*