PA: Bill would fine truckers for not removing snow, ice from vehicles

When drivers start falling of the slippery roof than who pays the injury claims. Idiots.

 

Fine me. I don't have a means of getting snow off there without going to ridiculous means. It'd be cool if truck washes offered a quick snow service, but quick at a truck wash could be 30 minutes +/- waiting in line. Even charging $5.00 per trailer, they could make a killing per storm in the no-snow states.

 

I used to always opt for the easier method...

 

Get a garden hose and wash deep snow off a sidewalk, use a pressure washer too.
It don't work.

I just picked up a trailer with about 8 inches of dry snow up there. Went down a narrow curvy road to get to the 4 lane highway, had 2 four wheelers right behind me getting a snow bath?.

 

What about steam? Heat and directional pressure should cut through even wet heavy Spring snow. Give the cleaning techs some powerful steaming wands and mount steam nozzles and heat blowers to the ceiling which can be raised, lowered and aimed.

 

Been that way in Canada for a couple years , lot of companies have a scraper system installed to clean the snow off the top on trailers / containers , just drive up lower blade to top of trailer drive thru loader cleans up the mess that comes off trailer, they also hit you $125.00 for snow covered lic plates

 

I do agree that removing snow off vehicles is good for safety. However, with anything that is a box, it's just not possible to climb onto the roof that is 13'6" high. Now some distrabrution centers have overhead snow blade to remove snow of the roof, but medium and smaller shippers do not have such equipment.

Unfortunately, law makers tend to pass laws without really understanding the problem.

 

So terminals, DC's and the like might have some sort of a scraper blade. However the smart trucker who pulled into a rest area to wait out the storm is screwed. How is he suppose to get the snow off ? Answer that Mr Lawmaker!!!

 

OSHA, MSHA, and every other "safety" regulatory agency has specific guidelines for fall protection and standards for elevated work surfaces in order to reduce the number of falls. In other words, if no safe access to the roof of the trailer is provided, and no fall prevention measures (i.e. guardrails) to prevent falls, and no fall arrest system is available for use, it would be a violation of the federal regulations to climb up onto your trailer in order to clear the snow to comply with the state law. In other words, the state law won't hold up to a challenge, and you won't find me trying to climb onto a box trailer to shovel snow.