forced hazmat endorsement!?!

Does that mean we'll get the Distinguished Driving Cross??? Private Driver, Major Driver 'n General Driver??? LOL! Just as long as they don't pull the grill out of the terminal, and replace it with (gasp!!) a "chow hall!!!"

 

The way to do it is on your first home time, try to get home so you have a weekday off, to to your DMV office (which I have to do anyways since I have to submit my new physical card, get the written test done, pay the fee for the checks, and get the endorsements. The company has people to live- call before leaving the shipper on a hazmat load along with your fm to make sure everything is legit before leaving there. I think the reason they started requiring is maybe too many non-HM drivers complaining about not getting a load or miles when their fellow drivers are already heading to the next shipper because they are eligible for those loads. I've been inspected before in Ohio where they have a separate enforcement division just for that stuff, and that was with a previous company who was not knowledgable about hazmat regs, therefore resulting in a botched pickup and paperwork, and I was lucky that the officer wrote the ticket out against the shipper. Yeah it's a PITA, but if there is no other freight around and you want to get moving, at least you can make a bit extra and get it done.

 

Hazmat was supposedly a requirement 4 years ago when I signed on, although it quickly became obvious that many drivers failed to get their endorsement. And that's one problem. They simply do not have enough drivers with the hazmat endorsement to cover the loads they are getting. The second problem is, in many cases, the sales staff is afraid to book hazmat loads because of the shortage of drivers that can haul it. So they are having problems covering the loads they do get and losing revenue on the loads they are passing up. That's the reason they want all company drivers to get hazmat. They have the same problem on the passports. Not enough drivers that can go to Canada. Sales is afraid to book the loads.

I can only speak from my personal experience, but having the hazmat endorsement is an absolute must in my opinion. I came here to make money. Hazmat pays more money and gets you more miles, end of story. You go ahead and bounce around up in the northeast with those short crappy loads if you want, but I'll be on my way out of there heading to Fort Worth, or Florida. Or how about the Walmart runs from Grove City, OH to Grantsville, UT or Stockton, CA? I'll take those too. Oak Creek, WI to Laredo, TX. Lima, OH to Quebec. Ontario to Laredo. Dover, DE to Oregon. Laredo to Toronto. The list goes on and on and on. I ask for hazmat loads. I'll take every one I can get. Me, Sherwin Williams, and PPG, get along just fine. If it were up to me, I would recommend that no more drivers be allowed to get the hazmat endorsement, because if they do, I'll make less money.

 

Some of you say big deal about getting "Hazmat" -- isnt there something about bigger fines or points or something like that should you get a citation ? Just asking i dunno.

 

It's just whining. It's not that big a deal, but so many drivers think all of this is "owed" to them. It's been company policy since the TWIC program started in '09 that all company drivers must have TWIC, hazmat and a passport. We all did back then, because the FMs were required to enforce compliance... seems like the orientation films are dropping the ball now.

 

So prime is forcing you to get your hazmat now? And if you don't want your hazmat you have to move onto another trucking job? just want to make sure I understand this. My fm suggested to me I get it, but did not say it is required for me to get it.

 

Prime is not forcing you to do anything, they are simply enforcing a policy that they haven't enforced in a while

 

I haven't heard anything about it yet. Guess I'll just get it planned on it anyways eventually.

 

Maybe no one will get let go. The OP was told he had to get it.

The argument here on this thread is that as a company driver, either you do what they ask, or suffer any consequences for not doing it.

I already have mine, but I asked my FM and he said on our board it's being "strongly encouraged" and there is talk of making it mandatory again. So either the OP 's fleet manager is on "independent ops"(as we used to say in the Navy) and enforcing as his own policy or maybe management is leaving it to the fleet managers to decide for themselves to enforce.

Final observation is the OP butted heads with his last FM and got transferred to a different one over a conflict just last month. Maybe this FM is having a conflict too and pushing this drivers buttons to get him to quit. Maybe not, just a thought.

 

If a truck driver does not want to get a hazmat endorsement, then perhaps the driver should NOT be driving a truck at all. More and more, many items are being classified as totally or partially hazardous. Having the hazmat endorsement protects both the driver and the company in many ways, economically and legally.

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!