Transportation, Warehousing and Utilities Program

Key points

  • The Transportation, Warehousing and Utilities (TWU) Program provides leadership to promote health and safety among workers in these industries.
  • The Program works with partners to address the leading causes of work-related injuries, illnesses and fatalities to improve the safety, health and well-being of the 6.7 million workers in this sector.

Overview

Banner of workers in the transportation, warehousing and utilities industries
Workers in various TWU industries.

The TWU Program works with partners in industry, labor, government, trade associations, professional organizations, and academia to address the leading causes of work-related injuries, illnesses and fatalities to improve the safety, health and well-being of TWU workers.

The Program is comprised of eight industries. This super sector grouping includes two parts: the Transportation and Warehousing Sector and the Utilities Sector and covers:

  • Transportation, including all modes of transporting passengers and cargo by air, rail, water, road, and pipeline.
  • Warehousing, consisting of establishments engaged primarily in the storage of goods.
  • Utilities, covering electric power, natural gas, alternative sources, water, sewage, and other systems.

Program priorities

The TWU Program has selected research priorities on the basis of burden, need, and impact and collaborated with other NIOSH research programs to write the research goals in the NIOSH Strategic Plan for FYs 2019-2026. Priority areas include (but are not limited to):

  • Transportation and fatigue
  • Human-machine interaction
  • Work-related obesity and chronic disease

What we've accomplished

In 2022-2023, the Program:

What's ahead

In the future, the Program aims to:

  • Develop a white paper highlighting research priorities based on the industry discussion groups.
  • Publish a research paper describing COVID-19 vaccine beliefs among TWU workers.
  • Publish a research paper describing methods and challenges to identifying and surveying hard-to-reach workers in TWU industries.

Contacts

Contact nioshtwu@cdc.gov with questions about the TWU Program

Resources

More related information can be found on the following pages:

NORA Council

The TWU Program helps lead the NORA Transportation, Warehousing and Utilities Sector Council, which brings together individuals and organizations to share information, form partnerships, and promote adoption and dissemination of solutions that work.