OSHA has inspected Estes Express Lines 3 times in Iowa since 2012.
The latest one began on Sep 4, 2025 after a complaint, in Des Moines.
Those inspections ended with 6 citation items: 1 serious and 5 other-than-serious.
Penalties were first proposed at $19,959 and now stand at $15,303, 23% lower after settlements or reviews.
Electrical equipment, general requirements comes up most often in these citations: 3 items under 1910.303.
How that compares: the median penalty per cited inspection for transportation and warehousing employers since 2015 is $2,412, and Estes Express Lines averages $5,402 (2 cited inspections).
1 inspection on this page followed a fatal incident.
Estes Express Lines also files yearly injury logs with OSHA, summarized below.
Inspection 316300821 OPENED JAN 18, 2012Closed
Accident · Partial · Safety · 31 employees at the site · Closed Apr 8, 2013
3815 W. River Drive, Davenport, IA 52802 · General Freight Trucking, Long-Distance, Truckload · OSHA's record · Phone and website on Google Maps
Incident on Jan 17, 2012 (fatal): Employee is killed when crushed by tractor
On January 17, 2012, Employee #1 was hooking a set of trailers. Employee #1 disp atched with the outbound supervisor at 8:00 p.m. When hooking two trailers, a do lly had to be used to join the two trailers together. Employee #1 aligned the do lly and tractor up to the rear of the trailer and then he got between the rear t railer and the tractor/dolly unit to raise the nose stand. The tractor with the dolly attached slid backward crushing Employee #1 between the dolly and the rear trailer. Employee #1 was transported to Genesis East Hospital in Davenport wher e he was pronounced dead.
| Citation and rule | Type | Proposed | Current | Issued | Status |
|---|
| Citation 1, item 1 29 CFR 880004 |
Other-than-serious | $4,500 | $4,500 | Apr 11, 2012 | Final |
From the Form 300A summaries employers file with OSHA each year. Rate = recordable cases per 100 full-time workers.
In 2025, the Des Moines site logged 9 recordable injuries or illnesses among about 83 workers: 9.3 per 100 full-time workers, against a median of 3.6 for its industry. Those cases cost 18 days away from work.
Current text from the Code of Federal Regulations. Some citations were issued under older wording.
Alert subscribers get notified of each newly cited employer in Iowa the morning it is posted. See the alert plans.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA enforcement data. A citation is OSHA's allegation; employers can contest it, and the status column shows where each item stands. Something wrong on this page? Tell us.
