18WT #067: Hazmat - Endorsements, Rules, Regs And More!

June 6, 2023  Patrick Heller / Janet McCue
 

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Episode #067

4, 3, 2, 1. Blast off. Here, ring here. Welcome to the 18 Wheel Podcast Show.

Okay, now say it seriously and slower. Welcome to the 18 Wheel Talk podcast show. Often, often, imitated never duplicated. The one, the only, the blue, the green, the big rig. 18 wheel talk podcast show. What is going on with your microphone? It got twisted the wrong way. It's related to you. We're going do not restart.

This is like the 10,011 time. Keep rolling. I'm rolling, babe. We're gonna run outta digital tape. It's rolling. Oh, okay. What are we talking about? How's Miss Janet today? Marvelous darling. Simply marvelous. Simply marvelous. Simply, marvelous. Marvelous going banshee, she's going to hell in a Hay basket and I'm driving.

That's right. You're taking and it's all fire. Anyways, welcome to the podcast show. Yes. What are we talking about today, miss Janet? Hazmat. Hazmat. Do you know what that means? Hazardous materials. Mm-hmm. That's, that's, it's, it's short for hazardous materials. Yep. We're going specifically talk about the endorsement rules, regs and more.

More. Hmm. All right. Well, where do you wanna start? Lead us off. Well, batter up. I'm just saying. Batter up your up. Hazmat hit it go for it. Put it in gear. Okay. Zip it. Zippy. Oh, okay. Hazmat. Hazmat, yes. Is an endorsement on the commercial driver's license, your cdl. Okay. And it's required to transport, you're required to have the endorsement if you're driving a rig that has hazardous materials in it within a certain range.

Okay? Okay. Mm-hmm. Like I used to haul oil, gas, and oil. Okay. You're required to have your CDL with hazmat endorsement to, to haul gas, to haul oil right, to haul liquid nitrogen, stuff like that, to haul explosives stuff like my dad carry. So basically if you gotta put a plate placard on the, on the vehicle, you need an endorsement to haul it.

Yes. Pretty much there, there are small amounts, like you occasionally had hazmat materials and small enough amounts when you worked for that certain company that shall remain unnamed Oh yeah, yeah. When I, when I held medical waste, yes, they carried small, small amounts that were not required to be placarded, so they did not have to have drivers with a hazmat endorsement when it was on wheels.

Like we had some containers that were on wheels. Okay. All right. If we had a certain amount of the, these wheel types on the, on the truck. Okay. Like if I had a trailer load of these, I had to put, put place cards, placarded it. Mm-hmm. With a specific number, which said it was Untreated medical waste, I think is what, is what the code, if you look it up in the code book mm-hmm.

It was, I believe it said untreated medical waste. Oh, okay. So if we heaven forbid wherever in an accident they know it's on the truck. Especially if they see stuff dripping out the back. I gotcha. So, so I know that they were required, you know, obviously six oil, I held a lot of six oil and gas. I know that when the driver that worked for the same company as I did in.

Just as I was leaving, he was coming on in New York, Uhhuh, when he came down from Vermont, I think it was Burlington. He came down route, route two, route Seven, came down somewhere there, some hill there, and decided just to pile into a town full bore, no breaks. Oops, oops. Plowed through a house, or three.

Rolled a tanker full of six Oil Uhhuh. Yeah, he He probably could have done a better job making sure everything was done properly. Yeah, possibly It was. It was had placards on it and he had his hazmat endorsement and his tank endorsement. Okay. But he didn't exactly follow the rules and regs. Okay.

So, okay, let's get into the rules and rigs. Yeah. Yeah. So let's do it. You're gonna have to read it cause I can't read it. I can't see it. Okay. So you have to pass a knowledge test. And a skills test. Okay. Depending on what type of hazmat you're driving, you also have to have other endorsements. Like I had to have a tanker endorsement, right?

Because the type of vehicle you were driving was a vehicle. The pulling, yeah, the trailer. Right? Some people don't understand the difference, right? If they're not a truck driver, they might not understand there's a difference. You can haul, well, you'd have to have a tanker endorsement to haul a tank. Well, you used to pull a tanker.

You used to. You still do. Okay. You know? And if you're, Pulling, say doubles, and one of the trailers has hazmat in it. You have to have it placarded. You have to have your hazmat endorsement, plus you have to have your doubles endorsement. Yep. You still have to do that. And that's usually on paid interstates.

Yes. And not all states have doubles or triples. Yeah. Which I didn't know that. Yeah. Yep. Because I grew up in an area where there was, and I had driven in areas where there was, and then I got to New York and I'm like, Where's all the doubles and triples on the interstate, but I did, again, I was driving, you know, like the Northway and Suffolk you could on, on, on the New York state threw away because the company I worked for had, had me get my doubles endorsement.

Yeah. Well I had my doubles endorse my doubles and triples endorsement. They had me licensed to be able to haul doubles on the throughway. Mm-hmm. And I could haul double 48 footers. Yeah. Triple pups. Yep. You know, so, and that's common. So if any of those three pups had hazmat in it, someone had to have that endorsement too, right?

Yep. So that being said, like say someone came to work for that company Okay. And knew they were gonna be hazmat as a requirement, Uhhuh. They have 90 days and they didn't have their endorsement already. They had 90 days from the time they started working for that company. Yeah. This is still law. I've, I've done all this research within the last 30 days.

Okay. So they have 90 days from the time they start with a company that hauls hazmat mm-hmm. To get their endorsement for hazmat. Now, if you work for, if you're going to work for a company that only hauls, hazmat, You're not gonna get a job if you don't have it in advance. Yeah. Yeah. That's just that easy.

Exactly. But if it's a once in a while thing, they give you 90 days to get it. Okay. After you get the employment or the assignment, and you have to have reoccurrent training at least once every three years. Right. So that's just everybody, no matter whether you have the once in a while assignment or you're all the time getting, you know, pulling hazmat and that's all you ever pull.

Okay. And that's just what, like a security training? No, that's the actual hazmat training. That's the actual course, the four hour course. Okay. Which it didn't used to be a four hour, but now it is. And that's, you have to go back and get that four hour course and depending on what's, oh, you have to sit through it.

You have to sit through it every night and re certify every. Every three years. Three years. Oh, okay. Every three years You have to, I misunderstood. I thought you said 90 days. No, 90 days from the date you get the job. Gotcha. You have to have it and every three years after. Okay. Okay. Got it. Yeah. I know. If they could see how much my ta my hands talk, they'd be like, wow.

She must be Irish. Anyway, I I, I just, I, I misunderstood. That's okay. That's all. I just wanted you to reiterate it. You're part of the specialized training, which I think is funny that they actually list on the Federal motor carriers federal Motor Carriers Safety, Associa Safety Association site is you have to have a cdl.

Well, yeah, but. My brain is, isn't that obvious? Yeah. Usually if you're looking up a hazmat endorsement, one would assume that you had to have the cdl. That you had the CDL to begin with. Yes. But also like cdl, hazmat, and a lot of times you have to have the tank or the triples doubles endorsement. You know, some they, I know that if you go through a school yes.

If you have the opportunity to get. That endorsement? Any endorsement. Take it. Yeah. I mean, especially if you're going through the school, you're gonna pay for it. You might as well take it. Yeah. If it, if they offer it, take it. That's what, when I went, you know, to get my cdl mm-hmm. That they said, take every portion of the test, you're paying the price.

You might as well take it all. Yeah. When I went to the only school, they said that too. The only two endorsements I didn't hold was passenger and towing. I didn't hold passenger. Did I have tow truck? I had tow truck. I know, I think I had tow truck. I never worked it, but the only endorsement I really didn't have was an passenger vehicle.

Yeah. So but anyways, you still have to do your pre-trip. You know, all your controls on your equipment, emergency equipment, they pay special attention to. Like your fire extinguishers and that type of stuff when you're hauling hazmat, right? Mm-hmm. And I guess now I don't mean this to sound as sarcastic as it's going to, I guess now they really pay attention to whether or not a, a hazmat driver smokes in their truck.

Oh, okay. The reason I said that is when I drove oil tanker and gas tanker, I smoked uhhuh. Everybody I knew that drove tanker, smoked, smoked, and smoked in their truck. Huh And a lot of us, a lot of them, I mean, of course, smoked when they were unloaded, right? A lot of them, them, them smoked when they unloaded Uhhuh, because what people don't understand is you're more likely to blow something up during that cigarette transfer, unhook and hook, like in and out of the car or in and out of a tank in the ground.

Okay? When it's hooked up and you're. From tanker to the nozzle in the ground, to the tank in the ground. It's locked. Right? No vapors. There's no vapors there. And if you're there for half an hour, I thought I was gonna sneeze. Oh, bless you in advance. But yeah, they felt it coming, so I guess they really frown on the smoking when you drive a semi with hazmat now.

Although I will say when I, well, it also depends the type of hazmat, like you said, yes. You know? Yes. When I did have the opportunity to. To pull explosives. I was really good and did not smoke and throw anything out the window. Oh, good. Yes. So I paid attention, so, okay. You also have to pay attention if you're pulling hazmat and you go through certain highways, near mountains have tunnels.

Okay. And if you're near a city, you're gonna see a lot of bypass roads that say if you're hauling a hazmat or a tanker. Yeah. You have to go around them. You cannot go through a tunnel with a tanker or a hazmat. I say tanker cuz most tankers are hazmat. Of course people are saying, well what about milk?

Yeah, but milk, just milk isn't still a hazard. It's not But you still have to follow the same rules. Yeah. They still, yeah, because it's tanker. It's a tanker. You still have follow the same rules. There was there was an interstate, I think it was was it Pittsburgh that has the tunnel? Well, yeah, and there's a bunch of interstates in, but there's an interstate that goes in the, but there's a tunnel and you gotta get off.

And I forget the interstate number. I think it's 79, 71, 79, something like that. Something like that, yeah. Where you have to bypass the tunnel. Yeah. And there's, there's interstates that go in And then Pennsylvania West Virginia, all up and down that area. There's the big tunnel in Colorado where there's, where there's tunnels that you have to bypass.

Yep. You have to go around them. Cars go through 'em, semis go around them. You know, if you're haul especially Yeah. Especially if you're hauling hazmat. Cuz they don't wanna Yeah. They're like, Nope, nope, nope. They're like, hell no. They're like, have you, are they coming in after you? No. What they do is they say, have you seen that Sylvester Stallone movie?

That's what the sign needs to say here. Right. Have you seen that movie? I haven't seen that go around it, but there are procedures for maneuvering tunnels, maneuvering around bridges, railroad crossings, flashers gotta be. I've seen a lot of semis that just fly across railroad crossings. Yeah. And when I went from hazmat to reefer mm-hmm.

It was really hard not to stop at every railroad crossing. I don't, once you get, once you get in the mindset, yeah. It was like that mind just, My brain was saying, stop and my stop flashers, check both ways cross. Yeah. The whole thing. But my mind was also saying, no, you're, you don't have to. Your not hauling hazmat.

Yep. So, but yes, I, I agree with you. Once, once you get your mind trained to do something like that, it's automatic. You're gonna do it. Yep. You know? And there's also attending your vehicle. If it's a hazmat, what do you mean? If you're loaded with hazmat, you're not always allowed to leave your vehicle to just pop on into a truck stop.

That's why you, a lot of times you see two people in a hazmat truck. Oh, I gotcha. Yeah. If one's in one has to be near the truck, it's gotta be so many depending on what's in it or on or around. Yep. If you're loading or unloading, it has to be compatible. Like tankers are loaded into ba, into have baffles.

A lot of tanker tankers have baffles. Like you could have five baffles within a tanker. Okay. They have to be compatible items like types of gas. For instance, you can't have gas and six oil in the same tanker if you don't know what six oil is. It's home heating oil. People actually do still use that. No, no, no.

There's a lot of people that don't know that those can't be in the same tanker because what happens if they mix? It's all destroyed. Yep. If two types of gas mix, it's still usable. Two types. If if 87 octane mixed with 93 octane, guess what? Voila. You got 93 octane. Yeah, exactly. You know, if someone gets it mixed up, you just got a different octane.

That's all. And poof. You got, you got mid grade, got mid, that's right. 93 becomes less. The 87 becomes more voila mid grade that that's how they came up with the mid-grade. That's what happened. Somebody screwed up and mixed the two and said, Hey, we might as well make a mid grade. That way we always got it covered.

Yeah, ba ba bomp. And you would know more about this cuz you handled. Cargo, hazmat, and I've never actually handled cargo. Hazmat is packing, loading, unloading, load securement, because all I did was hook the tanker up, make sure the hoses Oh, I got you. Drain. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Make sure the hoses were secure.

Oh, nothing was dripping, et cetera. We, with the medical waste company, we, we picked up developer fluid, which was classified as hazardous. Mm-hmm. And, but it was a, it was small quantity. And it had to be strapped to the back of the truck. Okay. So it, there was a specific location in the back of the truck that, that's where it had to be.

Okay. And we had a, a, I don't think we had to have a special platform to put it on. I know when we offloaded it and stored it Okay. Until it was picked up by our hazardous. People. It was stored in our warehouse on a raised platform that had to drip holes in it, you know? Okay. Yeah. I call it a waffle board.

Yeah. You know, a waffle board tray. Yep. To prevent it in case there was a leak and it spillt it would capture the leak. Yeah. And it had to be locked up. Yeah. Okay. So, so we were able to do, do certain things, but it was, at the time, it's the rules. That was the rules. That's how we had to. Be able to do it.

And that's how we got around the hazmat because we weren't picking up a lot. It was like maybe a, like a, a five gallon jug. Okay. You know, so, and I know I keep going back to tanker because a lot of hazmat, that's Well, that's what your experience is in. Well, not just that, but a lot of hazmat that's in large quantities put in a tanker.

Yeah. Not just gas and oil, but even large quantities of other types of waste Yep. Is put in a tanker. Yep. If it's any type of liquid Yes. Or, or semi-liquid. Anyway, you're welcome for the sound effects. Okay. You have to, you also have to learn the special handling of tankers. Okay. Liquids, slosh, right?

That's why they put the baffles in. Not all of them have baffles though. Well, what I'm saying, the ones that have baffles, they put the baffles in the, alleviate some of some of the slosh. Yep. Which is a push pull. Yeah. They have a high center of gravity. Yep. So like where there's especially cloverleaf cloverleaf entrances on and off, ramps on the highways.

Yep. They angle. Okay. So you have to like, if the speed limit going on a highway from one to another says it's 45, you're not doing 45 in a tanker fully loaded. No, you're gonna have to, because you're gonna be rolling downhill on starting on nine and then nothing. You're gonna be on your top. Yeah. Well, you're definitely gonna slow down though a minimum.

Minimum 15. 15 miles less than the speed limit. Yeah. So if it said 45, I'd aim at about 20 and see how it felt. Yeah. Depending on what I was loaded with, when you got to the end of the clover leaf, you'd be grabbing gears start. Then you can start grabbing gears. But going into it, you get to that tight spot where it's Oh, the highest angle.

Yeah. It's like, well, any tractor trailer's always higher. You should know that. Yes. And, and, and when they're going on a turn, they, they should automatically, well, we both, it's recommended for cars. The speed limit is yes. But we also know of people will say that said, oh, I took that curve on nine. And that person or people might have been smacked upside the head if they had said that to me in person.

Nice. So nice. Yeah. Once you feel nine lifting, you slow down and aim into the nine that are lifting. Yeah. That's, that's nine wheels out of 18. Yes. So if you've got a partial load, you case your're lifting and you're trying to, you're scratching your head like, what's nine? What's she mean by took that turn on?

Nine? Yeah. Meaning, meaning there getting ready to tip it. Yeah. They were getting ready to flip. I've only come close to Right. I brought, brought some wheels off the ground, and that was when I drove for a garbage company. Okay. Coming around a a, a turn. Mm-hmm. And the back, back axle dipped down into a, like a, a drainage grate.

Okay. And when we came back up, it shifted and it brought the tires off the ground. It was like a, a little bloop. Oh funny. And boy, my helper was old enough for dearly. He was like, I thought we were going man. Ouch. Oh, it made, it made my, you know what, pucker? Mm-hmm. I was maybe a few months into hauling Tanker, hazmat and Rensselaer, New York.

Yep. Coming from seven, going into Massachusetts. I went. Took that North road. Okay. And I started, I could feel the tires starting to lift, and I ba I aimed into it and downshifted and took my foot off the pedal a little bit and dropped it back down in the driver that was near me. We were running up to, into mass northern Massachusetts together, Uhhuh.

He says, wow. He says, I saw that start to lift. He says, you pulled it out real good. So it's like, oh yeah, when you know it's coming, that lift, you just, it's like, like wing and a prayer baby. Wing and a prayer. That's because, you know, In all of our training that we, between the two of us, we are, we're taught what to do in certain situations.

Yeah. Whether we get to use that training, it, it, it, you hope not, you hope you don't have to. Yeah. But in a split second, it, it rambles through your brain. And you know what to do if your training is rambling through your brain and you're doing it right, and you, you don't have that happen, right? You're going, oh, thank God.

I was taught that. Yeah. Thank you baby. And what's going Jesus through your brain is, Ooh, that was exciting. You're in the wrong job. God. Thank you baby Jesus. I remember the training. So every has, let's go on to employers. As an employer, they have to create and retain records for every employer. When they're a hazmat employer, whether it's one that has only hazmat employers.

Okay. Or loads. Or one that has a one a year load. I gotcha. They have to have records for everyone as long as employer, employee, I'm sorry, stays there and is retained. Okay. Up and then for three months after that, it has to have all their training records. Right, right, right. Everything that's current.

Everything. They came into the company with all their training while they were with the company. Gotcha. And if you're interested in running tankers, I highly suggest the rollover prevention video that is located on the FM S C A site. We'll have a link to it. F M s fms, federal Motor Carrier Safety Association.

Yeah. FM C S A site, did I say it backwards again? FM C S A I. It's okay. I do, it's a tongue twister for you. It's okay. I do flip letters. It's okay. We'll make sure it's, we'll make sure it's correct on yes, on our website. The link will be right. We'll definitely put a link into it because I found it fascinating and it covers the four approaches to reducing your tank truck rollovers design and performance of the vehicle.

The load effects, the highway factors and the driver factors, which is my favorite whaat because 78% of rollovers involve driver error. Because as a driver, the driver is the key component to preventing a rollover. The preview highlights what you see in the full 17 minute video. Okay. Things to consider on a rollover, especially a hazmat rollover.

Slosh. Okay. Tank stability. Okay. Rollover prevention. Uhhuh, high risk areas on roads. Okay. Allowing speed cushions, controlling your turns and regulations and interpretations. Okay, so, and I've told you about my friend that. Highly experienced driver. Yep. Highly experienced tanker driver. That can happen to anybody that ended up in a rollover.

Yeah. It can happen to anybody. Mm-hmm. Because he was coming, I can't think of the road that goes through Lake George and up there. It was a tight curve. It's, it was a tight curve. Downhill double S curve. A car passed him downhill on a curve. In a no passing zone, two-lane highway. Mm-hmm. And then stopped to make a left-hand turn right in front of him.

Yeah. He rather than hit the car and kill the guy ended up pulling, oh, he would've ran him over. Oh, the guy would definitely have been dead easily. The guy stopped to turn into his own driveway rather than, rather than wait for the truck, he was in that big of a hurry rather than, you know, wait 30 seconds to get his, he'd his own.

He'd rather risk his life Yes. To get home than to actually make it home. So my friend ended up rolling the tanker into the ditch right across from the guy's driveway. So there was no doubt who did it because like lots of witnesses exactly right across from his driveway deep. And the reason, thank God he's still okay and everything, but Right.

The reason I know is because the cops were looking for me to come unload the trailer. Right. So they were like, yeah, get a hold of, get a hold of Janet. She's not far from there. Yeah. She's on her way back. He was on his way up. We had same trailers, you know, identical trailers. And so you hooked up in, I hooked up, drain his trailer into yours.

Drain his trailer into mine. Yes. As the tow trucks were lifting his trailer back up and all I knew is his wife was worried to death and I handed him my phone and said, call her. Yeah. That's all I cared about. Call her is call her and tell her you're okay. Call and let her know you're safe. So we have another link to hazmat routes that you can't go in, go through like tunnels.

And that's again on the same FM C S A dot, federal Motor Carrier Safety Association. It's like tunnels. That's, I, I just, just, just. On the federal, on the federal motor carrier site, you're gonna see a lot of our links. You know, that's where a lot of, we got a lot of this information from, from their site.

From their site, 90% of it came off of their site because that's what they do for a living, a federal motor carrier. That, that they regulate us. They regulate the CDLs. Yes. You know, the commercial driving industry how to report and, and prevent spills. Same place. More links. Yep. And we'll make sure that we have a link there.

And a lot of this stuff is very interesting. Give it a read. Yeah. It might not, you'll be like, sounds super interesting the way that I'm putting it across. But it really is interesting. It's like you may read something and go, oh well, Oh, I never knew that the videos, even though I drove tanker for a while, it was like, wow, I never saw that before.

Yeah. I say, oh, wow. I didn't think of that. So that's something I, that's something new to me. Yeah. The secretary, secretary of the Department of Transportation has the authority to regulate the transportation of hazmat. Okay. Because of the Hazardous Material Transportation Act. Okay. I didn't know. Well, I knew, but I didn't know what act that might.

Is that the, the act that was enacted when the towers got hit? I believe so because There's a highway route controlled quantity of class seven radioactive material now. Yep. Anything over 55 pounds of explosive materials, it has to be that, that, that's gotta be the regulations that came into effect.

Yeah. This is some level, the stuff it covers more than one liter of material that's poisonous by inhalation. Okay. Mat, mat material poisonous by inhalation that meets for hazard zone C or D in packaging. Okay. Which just floors me. That could be in packaging. That's 3,500 gallons. Mm-hmm. You know, it's like, wow.

Yeah. Well, yeah, they, they weren't messing around since nine 11 because of how. They they've been trying, yeah, they, no, I say they, there's been terrorists trying to attack the United States for years. Yeah. Long before that. There was, there was there were they, they've been trying to take those towers down forever.

How much since they went up. They were, they would drive trucks filled with explosives down into the basement to try to take it out from below and, and not succeed. Yeah. This is why these regulations exist now, because they, they, they plowed planes into the towers. Yeah. And by they, I mean, terrorists.

Terrorists is that they were talking about, you know, so, so I understand why they came up with these regulations. Some of 'em are kinda redundant. Some of them are, yeah. Kind of hard to read. Yeah, I get it. Some of it, some of it is repetitive, but it makes sense if you're carrying the stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you're gonna haul it, you know what they're talking about.

They're like, yeah. It's like, you know, I don't know what a Class C versus a class seven is. Yeah. You know, or like the, this one, a shipment of compressed or refrigerated, liquified methane or liquified natural gas or other liquified gas with a methane content of 85% in bulk packaging in a capacity of equal to or greater than 3,500 gallons.

And I'm like, oh wait, I hauled that. E equals four times squared. Yeah, that's what it sounded like you were saying. All I heard is wah wah wah wah Well, I know, but then I'm like, Airgas, right? That's Airgas. Yeah. That's air gas. Yeah. O oxygen, you know, liquid oxygen. That's the company. Yeah. Liquid oxygen and you know, two all in liquid form.

So they have, there's all these new forms that came out in January of oh five. Okay. Okay. That they have to fill out that. Motor carriers interstate intrastate foreign carriers have to comply with it too. Although sometimes I won't name countries. But you'd think that some places don't know how to read or write English.

That's okay. Anyways. And if your inspection of your hazardous materials discloses, VI violations, okay. And you don't report it, you can get fined. And you can go with civil or criminal, or both penalties. Damn. You can get for civ for civil maximum $79,976 crim. This is per individual, right? For criminal $250,000, that, that's a quarter of a million dollars.

Yeah. That's up, up to, or that's the maximum for an individual That's up to, wow. I don't know about you, but my pocket ain't that too. Yeah. Oh, the, wait, wait, wait. My bad. Yeah, the criminal. That's the minimum that's on the $250,000 is That's minimum. The minimum. That's minimum. Ooh. A corp. That is if related.

Minimum $481 if it's related to your training. So if it happens in training, it's different. Oh, I gotcha. However, the person that's training you Yeah. They can get the full kit and caboodle, the corporation you work for half a million. Wow. If it results in death for civil. $186,000. That's crazy. Death, serious in injury, illness to a person or property damage.

And then there's a whole list of shipper responsibilities. And I know most of you aren't falling under this, but if you work for the company that does the shipping and does. The bill, like I worked for the shipping company because we picked up the oil. Okay. At the facility? At the refinery? At the refi?

Yeah. The refinery. Basically, we picked it up. We had the contract to pick it up. We were the ones with the contract. Okay. And then we hauled it, so we had that responsibility. We had to make sure that it met the definition of hazmat, had the right shipping name, the right division, the right id number, the right warning label if, if the guy before me had the wrong.

Placards on the tank. Yeah. I had to make sure that I flipped it to the correct one. Right. If I didn't, that's on me. That's not on him. Right. You had to make sure that whatever you picked up at the hospitals, for instance, were in the right packaging. Right. Yeah. They couldn't just throw hazmat in a box and say, here you go.

It's hazmat. Although I'm sure they tried at times. Oh, believe me, they're, yeah. I, I, I've seen some, some places take a, a sharps container that's full of needles. Mm-hmm. All right. And instead of putting that container in the box that's they're supposed to, they jumped it out. Into the container. They, they, they dump the needles out of the, out of the, out of the plastic, out of the plastic container.

He holds it locked and put it in a box. Okay. And thought that was the right way. A stupido. I'm like, I'm lucky I didn't get stuck my with by that porcupine box. Yeah. Right. My God. My boss was like, how did you not get stuck by that? Because literally it looked like porcupines. I said, well, I've. I bump my hands on the box like this, and I saw something shiny.

And then I look, and literally there was like, you know, it was like one was here, one was here. Oh, Jesus. One was Jesus. I mean, literally, I, there was thousands of needles poking through this box and I just, I literally picked it up, saw something shiny, and went, oh. Walked it over to where I needed to set it for him to look at, set it down and.

Pulled my hands out very carefully. Okay. Occasion I did get stuck and I just didn't feel it. Okay. So imagine you're the driver, like you were uhhuh and say you got promoted to facility manager. Okay. Of that, of that terminal. Okay. So you go from being responsible for your trailer? Now, now. You're responsible for a dozen trailers, a dozen trailers, drivers.

And everything on the list. Nice. The ID numbers, the class, the warning label, the packaging, the marking, the training of the employees, all the paperwork, all the emergency response information, phone numbers, certification, compatibility, blockings, bracings, that's inside the trailers. Okay? Placards, the security plan to make sure that the trailer doesn't get hijacked between point A and point B.

Right? Incident reporting in case a driver gets stuck with something right, or hazmat gets spilled, you have to make sure that the materials carry responsibility book is up to date. Yep. I did that for my boss when I was doing, when I got my knee hurt. Yeah. We had, we had we had to. A, a carrier book.

Yeah. You know, someone had the responsibility of putting that together. Yeah. It has all, it had all of our emergency contact numbers. Yep. You know, all our permits were in it, all our Yep. You know, how to load, how to unload, how to, everything. How to place card it. Yeah. How to market, how to, how to, how to, how to, how to, how to, how to, and how to practice for that moment when an incident does occur.

Like when I started. What I, I hurt my knee. Okay. Not a hazmat accident. It's just a stupid one. Okay. But my knee got hurt when I drove for, for the hazmat company. Okay. And so I'm like, I can't sit at home and be bored. No. What can I do? I don't know. They asked if I wanted to answer phones and I just looked at 'em and laughed.

You went, do I look like a God damn secretary? I said, nothing against secretaries. I love them, but no. But I said, no. They put me in charge of training and then they put me in charge of rerouting. I took the pickup because it was my left knee. Okay. I took the company pickup and I went to every facility we went to.

Okay. I did truck routes. All right. Wrote the truck route down, marked it on a map, cuz I made Xeroxes of all the maps. Okay, that makes sense. And then I, on it properly marked. Where the actual delivery point was compared to where the truck could park, because that was wrong on half the books because things change.

Right. And our books were like 15 years old. Yeah. And because you did that, that that was a big help. Yeah. You froze momentarily. I did. Yeah. But I did all of that and because I did all of that, then they had me train everybody. I had to give a training class like a. Two hour training class on everybody.

Like, okay, so this is what I discovered because I had to go on this. I went on this website, I went here and found out, I found this is about this what we're doing, and this is what we're supposed to be doing. And by the way, how's your fire extinguishers drivers? Yeah. You know, and stuff like that. Mm-hmm.

So they were like, oh crap, Janet's here. Yeah. But imagine, I mean, we had drivers get hurt from hazmat uhhuh covered in oil. You know, it ha six oil burns. Yeah. You know. We also hauled the tar for roads once in a while. Man. You wanna talk about a, well, like I said, we, I, I can't even imagine my company hauled, hauled.

You know, the old x-ray machines fixer developer when they developed ooh. You know the liquid? Yeah. No. You know, that shit burns. No, thank you. That'll burn your skin off. But if something had happened, someone's in charge of making sure that that employee say it had been you, God forbid. Yeah. Made it to the hospital.

Mm-hmm. Was taken care of. Whatever was While you were at the hospital. Yeah. But but say you weren't at the hospital. Right. Made it to the hospital. Everything was taken care of. All the paperwork was taken care of, did all the follow up, made sure nothing happened at the hospital. The trailer was cleaned up, the facility was cleaned up.

Yep. And all the other little things. Got all the ducks in a row. And if someone is killed, man, you can just, Tenfold everything, at least. Yeah. We had, we had one of our, one of the drivers when when I was back in upstate New York. Oh. I remember. He he got hit head on with a, with, with a, I, I, I'm, I'm guessing the kid had mental issues.

Okay. That was driving the car that hit him. He was on a two-lane road. Mm-hmm. Speed limit was 55. He managed to slow the truck down to 45 when he realized the kid was coming at him. Oh, wow. And got on the shoulder of the road and stayed on the shoulder road, did not go off the shoulder and into the berm, and like I said, slowed down to about 45 and they, they estimated the kid hit him and, and it was like an impact of about 85 miles an hour.

O Yeah. I told him, I said, I said I wouldn't, I wouldn't be able to get behind the wheel again. If that ever happened to me. I, I told my boss, I said, if that ever happens to me, don't ask if I'm coming back to work. Cause it ain't happening. Yeah. Thankfully it didn't, and thankfully he was all right. Yeah, I'm sure he, I'm sure that, that, I know a few drivers that's happened to.

I'm sure that he, he still has nightmares about it. Yeah, I have. I haven't talked to him since I moved out here, but yeah, Last I knew is still working. The old bastard. But anyways, but they also have to notify, like the accident that happened up in New York, the driver that took out a couple houses with the six oil tanker.

Right, right, right. They had to evacuate part of the town, not to mention the houses and Yeah. That got destroyed. Yeah. Because you know of what, what, luckily you guys all in, luckily nobody got killed. Right. Make sure, but they had to evacuate the area and the, since it was on a hill and things were, make sure it was all going downhill.

Yep. They had to evacuate like a quarter quarter of the town. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So they got the leak, you know, got it outta control, contained fire, apartment and everything else. And I was still in New York at the time, obviously. Mm-hmm. But my boss, my old boss called me and asked if I wanted to come help.

And I'm like no. Yeah, no, I'm good. I'm good. I've been there, done that. I don't do that no more. So I'm not gonna go in depth on the. Subdivisions here. I would definitely just at least, you know, read the classes. Yeah. But I'm not gonna go into the divisions of it. So like class one is explosives. Okay.

And then there's six divisions of explosives. Yeah. Yeah. They all have their own little classes underneath. So class one is explosives. Yep. Class two is gases. Yep. You know, flammable, non-flammable, poisonous. Class three is liquids. Okay. Flammable liquids, I should say. Okay. Class four is that would, so a flammable liquid would be your six oil Gas.

Gas is, you know,

I hear nothing. You hear nothing anyways. Oh, so your six oil was listed under gas? No, because. No, because a gas is a,

I know. It's like, hmm. I don't remember. I think they, it was semi well, it was semi-solid though. So like I said, it's like, hmm. It was a, because gas like petrol. Yeah. You know, Gasol gasoline. Gasoline is a flammable liquid. Right? That's, that's, I, that's, yeah. You said you, you hauled six oil and gas. Yeah, so that's why I said gas and I think that, yeah.

And six Oil, I think is listed as a flammable liquid as well. I'd have to look it up anyways. Anyway, anyways. Class four is a flammable solid. Okay. Tar is listed as a Yep. Flammable solid. Yep. Or combustible, like if something just poof, instantly will combust. Yep. Class five is something that will, is an oxidizing substance or an organic peroxides.

Okay. Class six is poisonous, toxic, toxic, and infectious substances. Okay? Class seven is radioactive material. Hey, that's an easy one to say, Janet. Hey, class eight is, Hey, that's what I hauled. You know, I, I, I hauled some radioactive material. Yeah, I didn't haul that, you know, low levels of radioactive waste.

But it happens, you know, people, people and, and people are like, how do you, how, what do you mean you used to haul radioactive? What? Well if somebody's having at a hospital getting chemotherapy treatment, they're injected with radioactive stuff. Yeah, that's true. And it'll, it'll, it, it's left in the vials and and, and all the IV hookups and stuff, and that's how I end up hauling it because it becomes medical waste.

That makes sense. Yeah. It just transport, it has a radioactive waste, has a shelf life of, you know, it, it, a, it, it. If it's a hundred in 24 hours, now it's at 50. It's level, it's radioactive level. It, the shelf life is 50% in 24 hours. So if it's at a hundred percent in 24 hours, it'll be 50, 24 hours, 25. Oh wow.

And so on and so on. And so it, it's gone. Oh, that's, I didn't know there's radiation in all around us. Yeah. But when it gets, if it's something above the norm, The shelf life, they, they say is 50% in, in a 24 hour period. I didn't know that every, every 24 hour. That, that's why we would have, we were able to hold it for three days and if it didn't come down to normal levels, we'd have to send it back.

Yeah. Because at the end of the third day, it would, if it's be at 12 and a half percent, but if it's still above Yeah. The quote because 50, 25, 12 and a half. Right. You know, so if anything above that, Yeah, we, we'd have to create special paperwork, take it back to where it, where it came from, and they would hold it for three, three days and then we'd come back, pick it back up again.

Oh, see a vicious cycle. Look at you. Smarty britches. I know, right? So seven is radioactive. Yep. Eight is corrosives. Okay. Like battery acid. Ooh. Batteries. You know, batteries. Batteries. Yep. Gotcha. Nine is miscellaneous dangerous goods. Like there's a hazardous that doesn't quite conform to any one specific thing, but has a little mix of everything.

Okay. Yes. I just saw drive-by Pugging. Yeah. I was like, what was that? That was a, that was a, Ooh, it was a walk by Pugging. Ooh, I saw a pug. Well, her sisters sound asleep, so we're good. Anyways. Miscellaneous. Miscellaneous. So, and then there's security plans after that. But I didn't realize I had hauled as many of these classes as I have what I haven't done.

Radioactive. What well? So security plans. Lucky you. They then, then they talk about the security plan requirements. In part 1 72, Subpart one of the hazardous material regulations, they're talking about each hazmat employer is subject to security plan requirements. But I mentioned that they have to have a plan of action, right.

You know everyone has to be trained. Everyone has to know what they're supposed to do, what they can't do. You know, it's like if you tried unloading six oil. Gas they weren't quite as picky. But if you tried even touching a six oil tanker and you didn't have on the right gloves, you might as well have watched your boss's brain explode.

What? Although there was one guy who's I would've paid to watch his brain explode, hazmat and all, I would've bagged it, bagged it, tagged it, and walked away, shut the front door bada bing bada boom. By the way, if you're finding value in this episode, please. Like, share, and, and follow us on all social media. Would greatly be appreciated.

Definitely. And, and wherever you're listening to us on, on whatever podcast channel, if you can leave a review, that would be awesome too. And, and or a rating. Oh, and we've got some really neat stuff coming up this summer. I know, right? I, I can't wait. I'm just like so excited. I know, right? It's like, it's like, can't wait.

We got, we got some special interviews coming up that, and some stuff we can't talk about. We're not gonna tell you about, we want you to tune in. That's right. And, and Patrick likes to, in case you've never seen us before, Patrick likes to make fun of Janet for funny faces showing off her manicure. And what else?

So, oh, and I'm a wiggle wart, so if you wanna see all this in action, you have to go to the number one, the number eight wheel talk.com/youtube. Or if you're on YouTube, search us at eight. The at sign 18 wheel talk. Look, we're there. We're everywhere like savoir faire see that logo? Oh my God. You did it. I got it right.

You didn't, you didn't throw your over the other shoulder this time. Usually I throw my finger over my right shoulder for the podcast logo. Ah, I'm learning. Well, technically it's up there, but anyways, yes. Ever since we revamped, because we we're, we're for truckers, we're about truckers. And we're by truckers.

We're, we're two retired truck drivers with 40 plus ex years experience in the industry. And I, I, I've got a variety of, of driving experience from a garbage truck to a tractor trailer. Janet's got diesel and her blood born with it, diesel and whiskey. So, and we are the 18 Wheel Talk podcast show, often imitated, never duplicated.

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Be sure to sign up, please, and thank you. And thank you. And I feel this sneeze coming now. I bless you.

He has to, he has to explode once every episode almost. I usually, I can make it through and then let it out when we're done. But that one said, Nope. No, not today. I'm coming out now, son bitch.

But anyways, we hope you found value in this. We hope you had as much fun as us. Yes. We, we, we have a passion for this industry that is like no other. And we, we wanna share it with you. If, if, like I said, if you find, if you find value in, in this episode, like it, share it, tell a friend, pass it on, get the word out.

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It's someone's trying to imitate us and you're never gonna find anything pornography related on our sites. Nothing. We are clean anyway except our mouths. We got a, we got an explicit rating because cuz of, cuz of Janet's mouth. She's got, she's got a sailor mouth. I do not. I was in the Army. Thank you. Oh, oh yeah.

My bad. So you got an army mouth? See? She's got, she knows how to swear at me in like 16 different foreign languages. That's just one of my finer qualities, darling. Anyways, we greatly appreciate you joining us today. Thank you. We hope you enjoyed the show and you hope you come back next time. Please like share, follow us on social media.

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We possibly will send you some sort of thank you. You know, thank you goody of something. We're not sure yet what it, what it will be, but it'll be good. It'll be good. Trust me, it'll be good. We just, anyways, say goodbye Janet. Goodbye Janet. Okay, bye.