Placarded Tanker Used Empty Lane at Weigh Station

Our cryo trailers are permanently placarded.
When empty we run the empty lane, even though
there is always liquid and/or gas inside the vessel.
Any significant product on and we would scale.
Never been an issue or had any questions, whether a poe or just a scale.

 

Even in a Pepsi trailer once the product is out the DOT at the scales consider it empty even with the totes and CO2 canisters, still placarded for the CO2. Pulled them thru Tehachapi in the empty lane. I stopped and went in and ask they were good with it,

 

Are ready did so no big deal. Hauled the same stainless tank week in week out live load and unload.
I don't get what people's big deal is about dragging hoses, I mean really is it that hard? Nope

 

Yeah.
I used to get paid $35 per placard I had to replace or put on too.
But why make more work for yourself,
Tell the tank wash and they’ll take them off.
Unless they are the ones you can flip.
I’ve got a placard kit still with who knows how many placards, another one won’t fit and I havent hauled hazmat since March

 

Because it is empty.
The glass that you drank your milk from is considered empty also. But do you put it back in the cabinet while it still has milk residue in it????

 

Same with MC/DOT 312 acid wagons that always top load, wash once a year for inspection

The poster questioning how a placarded unit is empty doesn't realize that a loaded flammable tanker has vapors that are too rich to burn [not enough O2 to support a flame] while the empty unit potentially contains enough oxygen to present an atmosphere between the Upper explosive limit [UEL] and the Lower Explosive Limit [LEL] and ready to burn given the opportunity.

Gasoline is off-loaded with vapor control [since 1976] so the fumes displaced are plumbed back into the trailer instead of simply being vented off into the atmosphere, who remembers the , long gone, series of vent pipes that used to stick up at the gas station?

That 'empty' gasoline wagon is a rolling bomb....

 

Very interesting watching all the replies on this thread. I think I might know what Scotty is thinking, so let me give it a shot.
It appears to me he is trying to clarify common sense vs the law. In the situation of a hazmat tanker that no longer has a discernable amount of product in it common sense tells us it is empty, but it appears the law classifies it as "loaded" until it gets a washout. So I think his question is if the law considers a tanker loaded until a washout, then why does it not have to go through "the loaded lane" at the scale house?
Most all the answers I have seen appear to fall in the common sense category. I think Scotty is looking for a more strict legal answer, not just what various coops do as a accepted standard practice (right or wrong).

 

Holy

Holy cow! Our van guys put up to 7 on per side.

 

I had 36 on a 4 compartment tank once.