Hazmat

hazmat payes more. can only tell ya from a driver . when i picked up hazmat i had to call dispac. tell them what i had, how much of it, emer. phone #'s other than that i don't know

 

$5,000,000.00 insurance coverage required. It pays a little more but I doubt it would be enough to offset the insurance cost with only 2 trucks running. You can expect more DOT Inspections also (hauling hazardous materials & being a new company).

 

Held to higher standards in regards to the law also, larger fines, etc.

 

A Foreman I'm friends with, at the site he works, they haul hazardous materials out of the work area. In his particular circumstances, they have Construction Laborers who're trained HAZMAT Techs to clean off the trucks/tanks of the trucks, and the trailors anytime they come back from transporting the type of waste they work with.

However, they are also building, excavating, and changing around the terrain to build some buildings in the area as well, so he may have even more restrictions to abide by to make the area safe for human use as they work the site.

The Construction Company has a $5.000,000 insurance plan, as well as it has to pay fees to dispose of the materials they are digging up. (so they can run piping through the area for water, etc. without it being contaminated) And that's on top of the non-hazardous materials they are working with/transporting elsewhere as well.

Since he's in charge of the dispatching, logistics, maintenance, and all other operations associated with the Equipment Operators/Equipment, the Truck Drivers and their trucks/Cargo, and anything/everything related to the mechanics and repairing/maintaining supply of spare parts and doing repairs etc.

In a 12hr shift, he can deal with routine inspections, and surprise inspections by the Feds. His truckers regardless of what cargo they are carrying gets routinely pull over for inspection while on the road to, and from destinations (to make sure nonhazard trucks aren't transporting hazard and vice-versa, and to make sure everything is squared away) and then they get to deal with extra expenses for taking on the cargo in the first place because they have to have both state, and federal permits to excavate the material they are excavating, to load the material into vehicle/trailors, and to transport the material off of the construction site, and then to take the material on the road, and then another set of permits to deliver the cargo to the disposal site, not including disposal fees.

All in all, it costs $163,000 a week to keep everything going on his end of the job.

But they are running 10 trucks, at least 17 pieces of Heavy Equipment, and two repair trucks + crews/Operators/Drivers.

That doesn't include the HAZMAT section on the site, nor the Electrician/Plumber section. Nor the carpentry general Laborer and Cement Masonry section. (They are working a very large construction site)

For you, with just two trucks, and being non-union, I don't think you'd have to pay that much into it, but not all to sure either way.

 

If you're involved just in the transportation side there's a lot more rules and regulations to follow. But, if you're in the storage and shipping side I would recommend hiring someone that knows all the requirements from that side. You can get into some serious problems, and costly, if you don't follow all the cradle to grave reg's. If it's once in awhile deal I would pass.

 

Just got done talking to my friend about the HAZMAT stuff. He says it's not worth the cost for permits, etc. unless you have at least 7 trucks, and all 7 have hazardous endorsements (Drivers) and at least 5 out of 7 will be handing HAZMAT at least 2-3 loads a week. Otherwise, it's not worth the cost.

The company he works for, had to bring in a lawyer to pull up all permit info for the state of WA, and for the Fed Gov. On top of that, the Lawyer had to go about bringing up the legal regulations and guidelines the company HAS TO follow to the "T".

And unless you have direct contracts with the facilities/clients to transport that cargo (more than a one-time gig) the cost isn't worth it at all.

Best way you can figure out the total income/cost ratio, is to contact a lawyer, and ask for all information needed for the state of California (I'm assuming that's the state you live in) and any fed regs regarding it. Costs associated with it, etc.

OH, also, you can't allow a truck driver with HAZMAT Endorsement to transport fuel, or any kind of HAZMAT that's a liquid that's transported in a tank unless that truck driver also has a tanker endorsement. Which may require another set of permits all together to allow truckers in your company to transport.

And he also said to tell whoever I was speaking with, to get contracts with disposal sites on an as-needed basis to cut costs for disposing of materials if needed (and also, only do so if you'll be doing it frequently).