I should HOPE he did jail time.

We (rather rightly, I'm afraid) ping on 4-wheelers for doing stupid stuff, but this kind of action.. you don't play games of chance with hazmat.

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Keep the big doors at the back!

Also, I might add that an empty trailer should be placarded is when there are still reminants of the hazdardous material inside. ie: gas, dust, ect...

That's not true. Or I should say it all depends on what it is and how much. You can have a small amount of some material and sometimes none at all. You have to know the regulations and I recommend a couple of handy guidelines. The Hazardous Materials Compliance Pocketbook and the FMCSR Pocketbook. I'm sure there are better but those fit nicely in my bag and along with my CFR 49 parts 100 to 177 I'm covered. I just hate reading the CFR's because they were written by the government and not the best reading.

The shipper is responsible for the paperwork to be correct.

The Driver is responsible to placard and drive correct routes. Wait until the trailer is empty until placards come off

But once you sign for the load and leave with it, YOU are now responsible.

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Z-Lady's devoted hubby.

We are told to never take placards off our tanks even when empty. Let the tank wash do it. Just make sure you have a bill of laden copy if asked to take an empty to a tank wash.

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A large majority of hazardous materials incidents occur during loading and unloading operations,,


leaving the placards on the trailer will assist and speed up any hazmat spill or containment... it only makes common sense to leave them on till you are empty and pulled away from the dock. usually when you are at the shipper/consignee they have the BOL.... and if something happens the responding hazmat team will have a fast and easy was to identify the type of hazmat that was on your trailer. most dock workers are not trained in hazmat, so if they damage a container the hazmat responders need to know the type of hazmat.. try placing an oxidizer next to a flamable..

also what if you take the placards off the trailer and the last pallet they reject... leaving you still with a pallet of hazmat and no placards... consignee is not required to provide... only shipper.. you carry extra's????

When I have a placarded load, the signs are put on while it is being loaded.

Before the truck leaves the dock, the load is properly secured.

After the doors are shut and sealed, a second check is made to confirm the placards are correct and in place. These are checked at all stops.

The placards are not removed until the truck is pulled away from the dock.

I also check the truck during the load when no hazmat is on board to confirm no signs have suddenly appeared.

True. We used to have these jerk kids come to our yard at night and switch over the placard signs to radioactive or something. You know the placards that flip over and clip in place. CYA

With tankers the placards stay on intill the tank is cleaned. The tank wash should take them off.

With a dry box check the trailer when you pick up an mt. When I was hauling dedicated automotive the trailer we dropped at Ford was placcarded. When we picked the mt up the placcards were still on the trailer. One of the other drivers didn't take them off and the Mich. DOT wrote him a big ticket for improper placcards.