ISO 4254-8:2018, intended to be used together with ISO 4254‑1, specifies the safety requirements and their verification for the design and construction of mounted, semi-mounted, trailed or self-propelled fertilizer distributors for solid fertilizer application in agriculture and to be used by one operator only, e.g. full width solid fertilizer distributors, solid fertilizer broadcasters, distributors with oscillating tube and line-distributors, as well as solid fertilizer distributors driven by an auxiliary engine. In addition, it specifies the type of information on safe working practices (including residual risks) to be provided by the manufacturer.

ISO 4254-8:2018 deals with all the significant hazards (as listed in Annex A), hazardous situations and events relevant to solid fertilizer distributors, when they are used as intended and under the conditions foreseeable by the manufacturer (see Clause 4), excepting the hazards arising from:

- inadequate lighting of working area;

- inadequate visibility from drivers/operators position;

- inadequate seating;

- travelling functions (drive, braking etc.);

- rolling over;

- equipment for loading fertilizer into the machine;

- an auxiliary engine;

- moving parts for power transmission except for strength requirements for guards.

ISO 4254-8:2018 is neither applicable to maintenance or repairs carried out by professional service personnel nor to environmental hazards (except noise).

ISO 4254-8:2018 is not applicable to the following:

- combined seed and fertilizer drills which create a soil trench and deposit fertilizer in said trench;

- machines for distributing granulated pesticides;

- pedestrian controlled distributors;

- knapsack distributors.

ISO 4254-8:2018 is not applicable to solid fertilizer distributors which are manufactured before the date of its publication.

When requirements of this document are different from those which are stated in ISO 4254‑1, the requirements of this document take precedence over the requirements of ISO 4254‑1 for machines that have been designed and built according to the provisions of this document.