Unattended Parking

Might as well clean out your truck when you go...

 

Looks like you are correct. The attendance thing only applies if on public road. So not sure how a rest area you be looked at. It not a road so maybe it would be ok. I would be nervous about that.

 

It isn’t the regulations that govern this, it is the insurance company who insure the load, my underwriter and insurer both said my hazmat loads under my authority can’t be left unattended without cause, like if the truck has to go into the shop for quick repairs. They both said dropping a trailer to let the driver go get something to eat or sleep at a truck stop or unsecured lot is a no no.

The ambiguity in the regulation is typical; However, the vehicle need not be attended while its driver is performing duties which are incident and necessary to the driver’s duties as the operator of the vehicle. many think that means they can drop a trailer and go but it doesn’t.

 

This forum is a good reference too, im about to go through the hazmat endorsement process, if its a class 1.1 to class 3 i believe it also has to be 300 ft away from buildings.....so depending what you're carrying, you'd also have to park in the farthest spot away from the truckstop entrance, correct??

 

I forget where it was but a few years ago a buddy of mine who drives hazmat told me he would get out and go for walks. He told me he had to keep the truck within sight and just do small laps around wherever he stopped. He said he took a walk down to nature Trail one time and came back and a couple officers were standing around his truck wanting to know where he was. I guess he didn’t get cited but they warned him, “you must keep your truck within your eyesight at all times when hauling hazmat”.

 

When we were doing fireworks loads a few months back, it was 6.5 hrs each way, we had it worked out with the customer that I would arrive in the middle of the night, they had a secured/gated yard, they gave me the combo, I could drop the can, seals intact, along with a kingpin lock, seal the gate and bobtail to the truckstop next door or the hotel across the street to take my 10. It was their private lot, they had 4 other containers full of fireworks and all the required permits for us to drop it. On the way down, I had my lunch, snacks, beverages, I stopped twice to take a leak on the side of the road and to stretch my legs, I had one truck stop that I knew for certain I could stop at if I needed to take a dump, but otherwise my option would have been to stop at the scale,

 

I had a placarded trailer and dropped it at the Brandon Iowa scale as the trailer was OOS, but the tractor was not. Bobtailed back to Evansville to get parts to repair bad air line on tractor. Upon returning, they scolded me for not leaving the bills on the front of the placarded trailer. So I would say dropping a placarded trailer is ok, as long as the hazmat bills are attached. Another time I dropped a placarded trailer at a Kwik Trip Rush City MN as the trailer was breaking apart. Left the bills on the front of the trailer and the company sent a crew to unload some of the freight and tow the trailer partially loaded back to our terminal and rework the load.