All provinces and territories · Editable Word template

Autobody and automotive repair safety manual template

A complete written health and safety program for collision centres, autobody and paint shops, dealership service departments, general repair, tire and glass shops, wherever in Canada the shop is. It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements and written for the work: isocyanate paints and spray booths, respirators and supplied air, solvents and flammable waste, welding and cutting on vehicles, two-post and four-post lifts, jacks and stands, frame machines, tire and wheel servicing, electric and hybrid vehicles, damaged EV batteries, airbags, refrigerants, carbon monoxide and road testing. Section 15 sets out the law of every province and territory, and federal workplaces, side by side, with each jurisdiction’s spray, respirator, lift, tire, welding, refrigerant and compulsory trade rules. It arrives as an editable Word file you make your own.

A look inside

Sample pages from the manual, marked and cut short. Your copy has no watermark.

Cover with room for your logo and company name

Linked table of contents, laid out on the 14 national COR elements plus a section on working across Canada

Section 3: nineteen safe work practices written for collision, refinishing and mechanical shops, electric and hybrid vehicles shown

Section 15: each jurisdiction's rules for spray booths and isocyanates, respirators, vehicle lifts, tires, refrigerants and compulsory trades

Appendix A: all 74 documentation questions of the national COR elements mapped

Print-ready checklists and forms: the electric vehicle high-voltage disablement checklist shown

What’s in the manual

1. Safety and health policy

A signed, dated policy, the written program, and responsibilities for management, shop foremen, collision and paint technicians, licensed technicians, apprentices, tire technicians, detailers and service staff.

2. Hazard assessment, analysis and control

Formal hazard assessments by shop area and type of repair, the 5 × 5 risk matrix, a critical task inventory, and the job hazard assessment for a repair.

3. Safe work practices

Nineteen practices for the shop: housekeeping, spray booths and isocyanates, respirators and supplied air, solvents, welding on vehicles, lifts, jacks and stands, frame machines, tires and wheels, electric and hybrid vehicles, airbags, refrigerants, carbon monoxide, batteries, tools and air, manual handling, moving customers’ vehicles, fire and working alone.

4. Safe job procedures

Step-by-step procedures for a two-post lift, spraying an isocyanate clear coat, cleaning a spray gun, disabling a high-voltage system, handling a damaged EV, removing an undeployed airbag, inflating a tire in a cage and making a frame pull.

5. Company safety rules

Life-saving rules for the shop (locks engaged before you go under, no spraying without supplied air or the right respirator, high voltage disabled and verified, never in the line of a pull), and a progressive discipline process applied the same way every time.

6. Personal protective equipment

Painters’ supplied air and respirators, fit testing, chemical gloves and suits, welding PPE, insulated gloves for high-voltage work, and the rest of the basic PPE.

7. Preventative maintenance program

Lifts and their yearly inspection, spray booths and filters, frame machines, tire cages and changers, compressors, exhaust extraction and shop vehicles.

8. Training and communication

Lift operation, isocyanate and respirator training, high-voltage vehicle training, refrigerant certificates, apprentices and compulsory trades, and orientation for every new technician.

9. Inspections

Shop inspections and job observations, lifts checked daily, booth and filter logs, and tools and equipment checked before use.

10. Investigations and reporting

A vehicle off a lift, burns, airbag deployments, EV battery events, exposures and near misses reported and investigated.

11. Emergency preparedness

An EV battery fire, a booth fire, a vehicle falling, a chemical exposure, carbon monoxide, and first aid in every bay.

12. Statistics, records and document control

Lift inspections, booth logs, fit tests, high-voltage checklists, hot work permits and waste logs, kept for the longest period any jurisdiction requires.

13. Legislation

OHS law, the lift, welding and respirator standards, refrigerant and ozone-depleting substances law, trade certification, the vehicle maker’s procedures, and the right to refuse.

14. Procurement and contractor management

Sublet repairs, towing and glass contractors, and buying lifts, booths, paints and equipment.

15. Working across Canada

Whose law applies, then every province and territory and federal workplaces side by side: the act and regulation, the regulator, spray work and respirators, lifts and tire servicing, welding, refrigerant certificates, compulsory trades, and serious incidents to report and how fast.

Appendix A. COR cross-reference

Every one of the 74 documentation questions in the 14 national COR elements, what it looks for in plain words, the section that answers it, and whether the auditor will also want your records.

Appendix B. Forms

37 print-ready forms that match the manual, each with a form code: among them the job hazard assessment for a repair, vehicle lift inspection, spray booth and filter log, electric vehicle high-voltage disablement checklist, hot work permit and flammable storage and waste log.

Written for the work, not just the province

A shop’s worst days come from a few jobs: a car off a lift, a clear coat sprayed without the right air, a split rim, a pull that lets go, a damaged EV battery that catches fire overnight. This manual is written around them, practice by practice and procedure by procedure.

Electric and hybrid vehicles get their own practice, a disablement checklist and a quarantine spot for damaged batteries, following the vehicle maker’s procedures.

One program for every province you work in

Your crews follow the occupational health and safety law of the province or territory where the shop is, not where your office is. The manual sets your company’s rules once and gathers what changes at each border into section 15, so a supervisor starting work in a new province looks up what applies there.

It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements, so it suits a COR audit wherever you certify. Each certifying partner uses its own audit tool, so check it against yours; our provincial manuals follow each province’s audit exactly. No template can guarantee a certificate on its own, and we don’t claim to.

Who it is for

Collision centres, autobody and paint shops, dealership service departments, general repair, tire, lube and glass shops, and mobile repair.

A template is a starting point, not legal or engineering advice: a qualified person must adapt it to your shop and your equipment before you issue it.

Lifetime updates

When the law changes, we publish a new edition and email everyone who bought the template. Every update is free, for as long as we publish it.

Version 1.0 October 29, 2026
- First edition, written for autobody, collision and automotive repair shops and laid out on the 14 national elements of the harmonized COR audit.
- Section 15 sets out the law and the spray, respirator, lift, tire, welding, refrigerant and trade rules of every province and territory and federal workplaces, checked against the legislation in force on 28 October 2026.