hazmat/placards

Help us settle a bet. The company I haul for has hazmat mixed in with our loads(not enough to placard) Do we need hazmat on our cdl for this. Also is it legal to have food products on the same trailer (once again..no placard)

Yes, you do need a hazmat on your cdl. You can have food products with some haz-mat loads but you can not put in poison

...right.

As of last year, if you haul anything without the proper endorsment on your CDL will be an automatic 1 yr suspension and fine.
Mixing of food products and hazardous material is also prohibited for obvious reasons.

I'm not meaning to preach here, but if you are doing these things... you are setting yourself up for a major fine(s), the end of your career as a driver and no the judge isn't going to understand when you plead for you CDL back.

What kind of assinine question is that?
If your company pulls hazmat odds are
you will need your hazmat endorsement
regarless of whether any given load
is of a reportable quantity or not.
Just because one load isn't placarded doesn't mean the next load won't be.
I'm sure you will be pulling placarded
loads on a regular basis.

And no, you can't pull hazmat with food
in the same trailer.
Think hard.
What happens if poisonous material leaks
into any foodstuffs you have on board
and that food winds up in a supermarket?
Guess what happens to whoever eats it?
Helloooooooo!
'nough said.

- prime rib

The hazmat endorsement is good to have and most of the big outfits require one anyway. We regularly haul unreportable amounts of hazmat in our grocery and non grocery loads without placards. Bic lighters,propane camping cylinders and paint thinner are all items mixed on our loads daily and considered non reportable up to certain weights. The same trailers always have some sort of foodstuffs candy,gum,nuts and on straight grocery trailers they will sometimes drop a board of mixed hardlines the above mentioned types of hazmat,televisions and the anything else that might have been late in the pick cycle.

Hello?Anyone out there have their CDL?Been through driver training or orientation with any major carriers??

I hope to God the gum I'm chewing wasn't sitting next to the pallet of paint thinner one of the posters here was hauling!!!

Here it is folks- - -

HazMat endorcement REQUIRED to haul ANY amount or type of hazardous materials based on the new regulations since September 11, 2001.

Anyone ever hear of the Federal Motor Carrier Hazardous Materials Regulations Handbook?? Take a peek in your Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations Handbook under Hazardous Materials!
You are supposed to have the updated copies of these publications on board your truck! It is the responsibility of your company to provide these to you at the time of your training or orientation! The government says so in the Regulations! If you are an O/O operating under your own authority then you would have recieved copies when your authority arrived in the mail.

The shipper is required to provide the driver with the proper documentation and placards as required but - -IT IS THE DRIVERS responsibility to ensure that the documents, placards, emergency action documentation and yep the handbook are onboard and in order!

Please don't haul another HazMat load until you familiarize yourself with this info.If you choose to do so you may be doing something extremely unsafe- - jeopordizing people's lives or your own trucking career.

Visit the URL below for more info- - when you get to that site type- - hazardous materials- - in the search there

Some consumable food products are considered "HAZMAT". Such as most booze. Some "HAZMAT" items can be transported with food items. However, "STRICT" packaging, and transporting rules apply. Also check your compatibility chart. Transporting certain items with others is a no no. Poison can never under any circumstances be transported legally on the same vehicle with foodstuff. And yes.... YOU GOT TO HAVE A "HAZMAT" ENDORSEMENT on your CDL.