Hazmat question - placards ripped, need replacements

Lots of hyperbole here. Placards blow off all the time, you're not going to lose your job over it. I've passed many a scale only to stop a couple miles later and realize one of my placards was gone. Most of the time the bozos manning the scales aren't even paying much attention to us. They're just punching a clock. I'm not saying don't replace placards when they blow off but you don't have to freak out about it. I've been hauling haz for 8 years and I have never seen or experienced more DOT scrutiny than when pulling none haz. They way some people talk you would think pulling hazmat means you're guaranteed an inspection. It's just not true.

 

First, get some clear packing tape to keep on hand. when using floppy stick on placards in placard holders use the tape around the four sides to keep them in. use windex and paper towels to clean the areas that your putting the tape. tape wont stick to dirt. when using the cardboard type lay the placard flat and put a layer of tape across the front, its as good as laminating. always save all your placards, then this situation wont happen, and, in a pinch use the back of a placard to write the info on. just copy from top, middle, bottom. look in your hazmat book, it will tell you how.
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I rarely mess with paper placard's, sure is nice. That SC placard is the only one I've touched since hauling strictly hazmat.

 

Lesson learned: Have your employer provide multiples of each. As a Local LTL peddler, We sometimes have the metal placards ( varies with trailers) Very often use cardboard, Crap happens and it's our job to ensure the replacement of placards at employers expense to provide obscene amounts of placards scattered throughout the cab lol.

TLDR; Ask employer/customers for a crap load of placards. If paid hourly, wait till the most inconvenient time and request placards from 400 miles away.



8 hours later

 

Truth, ethos. It's about CYA, mostly. Those HM violations are not good. Also, some companies have better CSA scores, and get to bypass more scales on their Pre-Pass signal. I get annoying updates from Safety about company hazmat violations by other drivers all the time. My favorite: driver pulls over to let his dog answer the call of nature. Does not stop more than 5' from the roadway. Gets a DOT officer, gets a citation, cost him like over $2K for that little oops. It's going to be with him a while, too. So yeah, most of the time it won't matter. But when it does, it really does.

 

"Personally, I took a vow (to myself) never to risk my CDL and my livelihood, nor to compromise my professional standing, for anybody."

In 11 years? Two full inspections. Passed 100% no violations. One pull over for road side inspection by a CO DOT officer hauling Hazmat no violations. NO major accidents. Never been put out of service. Never was pulled over or hassled by DOT in two years hauling crude oil tanker. Oh, a couple of speeding tickets. Not perfect by any means. But I do know sometimes in some situations its get it done or not. Trucking is an ugly business at times for drivers. Hopefully I woke a new driver up its not all peaches and cream. Some people you work for will leave out to hang and dry. Sure by all means stick to your principles to each his own. Just don't expect a pat on the back for it. Also expect (most likely for your own good in the long run) to be starved out and ran off for doing so. If your gonna say no say it and mean it. Then be ready for everything that comes after that. Never say no unless your mean it and follow through with it.Its a no five minutes ago, its no now, its going to be no in an hour, and its going to be no a week from now. Don't waver and don't back down. If your going to run legal that means you do it every time. Once you do run illegal and whoever you work for know this your ### is done as far as saying no from that point on about how you refuse to run illegal. If you cheat your logs for an hour to get home, they are going to demand you do so to get to a load there on time. If you want to run legal with logs then you better get with someone that has elogs. Cause the rest that are running paper for a reason.

 

Once I had a overweight load. They refused to allow me to return and have it reloaded. Sat for two days in a truck stop. They finally sent some guys out to reload it. The forgot to put the spacer between the nose of the trailer and load. Still over weight and the company then refused to have reloaded again. This was five days of sitting. Principles don't do anything illegal. Long story short. Abandoned the equipment and walk home? Or just suck it up and go around a couple of scales. We went around the scales. The place I was to deliver is right down the road from the main terminal of the company. Got empty, returned to the company, quit.
Another company had me load in Laredo. Over wight. Went back they reloaded it. Over weight again. Friday sit until Monday. Go back still over weight. Mind you I was there at 8 am sitting in a dock until 4:30 pm until they would start to reload each time.Take the over weight load back to truck stop each time to spend the night because they didn't have time to unload it after reloading it because they were closed. A Hazmat load going to CA. Wednesday they finally sent in a team to haul the over weight Hazmat to CA. That Friday I got a legal load out of Laredo. I lost a whole week of income.True getting caught might have been more expensive. That up to the individual.
The point? Trucking is a dirty, nasty, business some days.

 

Hi TNMT, I agree 100%. Many times when I hauled RR cans, there was no place to get it reloaded, and sure, I could have refused the load, but then the company said, well, you can refuse the load ( company had a no forced dispatch policy) but then they'd say, we have nothing else for you. I only had 1 scale to deal with, so I'd take the load, and go around the scale, or wait it out on the ramp until they closed. (the Wis. DOT soon got wise to that practice)Like you say, trucking isn't all "sunshine and smiles", and sometimes you have to do what you have to do, to get the job done. (and make a buck)

 

That's partly true but you never know what is going to happen. I'm sure the OP has learned his lesson and will carry extras from now on. It's a lot easier to understand the madness sometimes when you fully understand the reasons placards are used. I'm sure you do after some time dealing with hazmat but there all some drivers that do not understand and get really teed off for no reason.

The reason the load is placarded is to communicate with first responders in case of an accident. If a driver is not on site (running down the road) or can not explain to the first responders they can look at the table (most of them use table 172.101 in the CFR49 parts 100 to 177) and know what they have to deal with. Many first responders get really bent out of shape if something happens to the load and they are surprised.

Most of the time the world is running right and as you say no big deal. But say the first responders just got done with a real messy one a few days before they are going to be real touchy. That's when everyone is going beyond normal and you do not want to be caught up in any violations. Then as time passes things get back to normal and most likely you will not have the book thrown at you. It also depends on what you're hauling too. There are items listed that will make you think the world is going to blow up but the first responders know what they are dealing with and address the problem as they should. No surprises and they are happy.