Christopher
Moderator
There has been a lot of questions in the past couple of years about how many gallons or pounds of a chemical you can have on your truck or trailer.
When at the chemical supplier the other day I asked the rep to show me the Federal D.O.T. guidelines so I can share them with friends and other contractors that do not know what you can legally have on the vehicle without having a CDL with HazMat endorsement.
Here is some information on Placards and the Federal D.O.T. (Department Of Transportation) guidelines that are short and to the point on gallons and pounds of certain chemicals.
He cold not find the guidelines but showed me something easier, a placard chart which shows the chemical package groups and what amounts in gallons or pounds that you have to have placards for on that vehicle so if inspected, you don't end up with a lot of fines.
I could not find the exact chart that he had in his office but this is just as good, you can probably print it out or find a placard supplier and get a copy to keep in your vehicle with the Manifest and MSDS of all the chemicals that you have on the vehicle or trailer to show the D.O.T. Officer for routine inspections.
Here is a link: http://safety.science.tamu.edu/dot.html
When you go there and scroll down the page you will see the hazard class 8 which are corrosives which is in black and white, that covers most acids, caustics and bleach type products.
You might wonder why Acids, Caustics and Bleach are all in the hazard class 8, it is because they are corrosives, you can look up and do some reading for further details about that.
What this means is that you can only have 1000 pounds, not gallons of a corrosive on a vehicle (truck or trailer) without needing placards, CDL with Hazmat endorsement, etc.... 1001 and more pounds will require the above and more, you can check into this.
So, since bleach typically weighs about 540 to 570 pounds for a 55 gallon drum from different suppliers, you would want that amount on your trailer or truck to be under 100 gallons to be on the safe side, more can put you over the legal limit, at risk and potential Federal D.O.T. fines which would not only cost a lot of money but serious violations to say the least.
I know that a lot of people say that they never get stopped, know law enforcement officers, blah, blah, blah, etc.... It is not an issue of if you get stopped but when. Since Homeland Security started contacting chemical suppliers, more and more suppliers are enforcing the weight limits and most will not sell you the amount to be over the weight limit per vehicle but not all suppliers are complying yet....
This is just to let you know what the weight limits are for different chemicals, if you have a different chemical, look in the MSDS, usually part# 14 under transportation and it will tell you the hazard class it is in and you can take a quick look on the placard chart to see what the weight or gallon limit is before you have to have placards, CDL, etc....
These are Federal D.O.T. Regulations that apply to all states even though a lot of states do not enforce them and most police do not know the regs, mostly it is the Highway Police and State Troopers that know the regs and enforce them.
Hope this helps.
When at the chemical supplier the other day I asked the rep to show me the Federal D.O.T. guidelines so I can share them with friends and other contractors that do not know what you can legally have on the vehicle without having a CDL with HazMat endorsement.
Here is some information on Placards and the Federal D.O.T. (Department Of Transportation) guidelines that are short and to the point on gallons and pounds of certain chemicals.
He cold not find the guidelines but showed me something easier, a placard chart which shows the chemical package groups and what amounts in gallons or pounds that you have to have placards for on that vehicle so if inspected, you don't end up with a lot of fines.
I could not find the exact chart that he had in his office but this is just as good, you can probably print it out or find a placard supplier and get a copy to keep in your vehicle with the Manifest and MSDS of all the chemicals that you have on the vehicle or trailer to show the D.O.T. Officer for routine inspections.
Here is a link: http://safety.science.tamu.edu/dot.html
When you go there and scroll down the page you will see the hazard class 8 which are corrosives which is in black and white, that covers most acids, caustics and bleach type products.
You might wonder why Acids, Caustics and Bleach are all in the hazard class 8, it is because they are corrosives, you can look up and do some reading for further details about that.
What this means is that you can only have 1000 pounds, not gallons of a corrosive on a vehicle (truck or trailer) without needing placards, CDL with Hazmat endorsement, etc.... 1001 and more pounds will require the above and more, you can check into this.
So, since bleach typically weighs about 540 to 570 pounds for a 55 gallon drum from different suppliers, you would want that amount on your trailer or truck to be under 100 gallons to be on the safe side, more can put you over the legal limit, at risk and potential Federal D.O.T. fines which would not only cost a lot of money but serious violations to say the least.
I know that a lot of people say that they never get stopped, know law enforcement officers, blah, blah, blah, etc.... It is not an issue of if you get stopped but when. Since Homeland Security started contacting chemical suppliers, more and more suppliers are enforcing the weight limits and most will not sell you the amount to be over the weight limit per vehicle but not all suppliers are complying yet....
This is just to let you know what the weight limits are for different chemicals, if you have a different chemical, look in the MSDS, usually part# 14 under transportation and it will tell you the hazard class it is in and you can take a quick look on the placard chart to see what the weight or gallon limit is before you have to have placards, CDL, etc....
These are Federal D.O.T. Regulations that apply to all states even though a lot of states do not enforce them and most police do not know the regs, mostly it is the Highway Police and State Troopers that know the regs and enforce them.
Hope this helps.
