What is an OSHA Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred (DART) Rate?

The Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred (DART) Rate is designed to track any OSHA recordable workplace injury or illness that results in time away from work, restricted job roles, or an employee’s permanent transfer to a new position. OSHA DART rates are a key metric used to evaluate workplace safety. OSHA uses the DART rate to monitor high-risk industries, and they also allow EHS managers to measure the business impact of recordable incidents over time. Because it focuses on more serious cases, the metric highlights the impact of DART injuries including those that lead to lost workdays, restricted duties, or job transfer.

How to calculate your company’s DART rate?

The DART calculation is based on the following formula:

(Number of OSHA Recordable injuries and illnesses that resulted in Days Away; Restricted; Transferred × 200,000) ÷ Employee hours worked = DART Rate

To break this formula down, employers multiply the number of incidents that caused an employee to cease working in their normal capacity by 200,000. This 200,000 represents 100 employees working 40 hours a week for 50 weeks during a calendar year. Then, this number is divided by the total number of hours a company’s employees worked.

For example, say a company had lost-time incidents that occurred during a year. If the organization has around 1,000 employees that work 40 hours a week, this number may not be consequential or indicative of a greater problem. If, however, a smaller company only employing 10 or 15 people report the same number of incidents, OSHA may be concerned that the company is failing to follow proper health and safety procedures.

OSHA also considers industry risk levels when examining the DART rate OSHA uses to compare safety performance across sectors. For example, if a logging company or intensive manufacturer has a relatively high DART incident rate, this may be attributed to the dangerous working environment. However, if a high rate comes from a low-risk retailer or manufacturer, this may be a sign that the organization needs to take serious steps to address this problem.

Numerous organizations throughout North America rely on Vector EHS Management Software to monitor safety performance metrics and calculate and track OSHA DART and other incident rates.

What’s the Difference between the DART rate and TCIR?

A DART Rate stands for “Days Away Restricted or Transferred” Rate and includes only those OSHA recordable injuries or illnesses that resulted in days away from work, restricted duty, or transfer of duties.

The Total Case Incident Rate (TCIR), also known as TRIR, is defined as the number of all work-related injuries per 100 full-time workers during a one-year period.

Typically, your organization’s DART rate will be lower than its TCIR. This is because only the more severe OSHA recordable injuries and illnesses are included in your DART rate. These DART injuries are a narrower subset of incidents, helping organizations focus on the events with the greatest effect on productivity and safety performance.

Determining what qualifies as an OSHA recordable incident is often more complex than it seems, and understanding these distinctions is essential for accurate compliance and benchmarking.

How are incident rates used?

Incident rates serve as a benchmark that you can use to compare and evaluate your company’s safety program against other organizations or your performance in past years. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on these metrics as they play a key role in improving safety performance.

As incident rates are used throughout many industries, the type of industry and nature of the work is taken into account when analyzing past data. Incident rates are lagging indicators. OSHA officials state that these statistics indicate past performance and aren’t necessarily indicative of future incidents or procedures. For similar industries, OSHA may compare certain safety data of companies to others within the same business sector.

What is a good DART rate?

DART rates differ from industry to industry; with certain industries having a significantly higher risk than others. Many organizations compare themselves to other organizations with the same NAICS code to determine a good DART score. Overall, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports a DART of 0.9 cases per 100 full-time equivalent workers for private industry in 2023.

For example, a “good” DART rate will be lower than the national industry average. Tracking and comparing your company’s performance helps ensure compliance and highlight areas for improvement.

Frequently Ask Question (FAQs): DART Rate and OSHA Reporting

Q: What is a DART rate?

The DART rate is a safety metric used by OSHA to measure the number of workplace injuries and illnesses that result in days away from work, restricted duty, or job transfer.

Q: What does DART stand for?

DART stands for “Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred.”

Q: How to calculate monthly DART rate?

To calculate a monthly DART rate, use the OSHA formula but apply it to one month of data rather than a full year. This can help identify short-term safety trends.

Q: What is a good DART rate in high-risk industries?

A good DART rate is one that falls below the BLS average for your industry. High-risk sectors such as construction, manufacturing, transportation and warehousing, and logging often report higher rates due to the nature of their work.

How can safety software help?

Vector EHS Incident Management Software helps companies gather essential incident-related data and then analyze it for trends or problems. Any range of incident, injury or illness can be tracked through this software, allowing your users to generate reliable OSHA 300, 300A, and 301 logs to keep in compliance with OSHA recordkeeping regulations.

Book a demo today to see how leading safety teams rely on Vector EHS to elevate safety, compliance, and efficiency across all worksites