Attending parked placarded vehicle

Sounds like your "book" is missing a few pages... I used to haul nothing but Hazardous Waste (Classes 3, 4, & 9) clear across the U.S., from CA to PA and GA, right? If you're away from your truck, be sure to leave your BOLs or "Uniform Hazardous Waste Manifests" in the door pouch, or on your driver's seat... and park in designated "Hazardous" slots in truck stops, if they have them. Stay on private property when shut down (as opposed to pickle parks or public streets, where you might be randomly D.O.T.'d or given grief by some overzealous authority figure), mind your comic book, and get on with the business, 10??? The bottom line with Hazardous (back when I hauled it, anyway) was this: NEVER DROP YOUR PLACARDED WAGON ANYWHERE, AND ALWAYS HAVE YOUR LOG AND PERMIT BOOK UP TO DATE TO AVOID REVENUE COLLECTION. If you're under a placarded load, bank on garnering more attention than if you were merely smuggling DOPE, FIREARMS, ILLEGALS, ETC. That's my $.02 on haulin' Hazardous............................................ "ADIOS!"

 

Depends on the type of hazmat as well.

 

Railspillter and Roadmedic are both right. I've hauled hazmat had haven't had any problems in dealing with DOT. The biggest thing is to do a thorough Pretrip while under the hazmat load.

 

I hauled munitions and commercial explosives for Tri-State Motor Transit in the late 1960s. As team drivers, one of us attended the load most of the time. It seems that occasionally, the load was watched through the window of a restaurant. Truck stops in the west provided guard service for parked munitions rigs. These rigs were herded together and a guard in a pickup truck watched them for a fee while both drivers wasted time in the truck stop.

 

I've hauled lots of HazMat and never had any problems. Just make sure your ducks are in a row. Which you should do ever time anyway. Big thing is as railsplitter said park on privet property.

 

I hope you didn't set on a firm date yet to start. That security paper can take 60 days to come back. I passed the test on March 23, got fingerprinted on the March 24 and still don't have the paper in hand. TSA said I was approved (I have no issues going on, past or present) but it still takes a long time getting the paper. The only reason I wanted hazmat again is because we have Army and Air Force bases close by. Hazmat is necessary for an on post driving job. That's what I'm aiming for eventually. Be careful and good luck on your job.

 

§397.5 Attendance and surveillance of motor vehicles.

(a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, a motor vehicle which contains a Division 1.1, 1.2, or 1.3 (explosive) material must be attended at all times by its driver or a qualified representative of the motor carrier that operates it.

(b) The rules in paragraph (a) of this section do not apply to a motor vehicle which contains Division 1.1, 1.2, or 1.3 material if all the following conditions exist—

Only applies to explosives 1.1, 1.2 or 1.3.

Be safe.