Hazardous Materials Safety Permits
Posted on November 2, 2007
Filed Under GENERAL
So I gave a speech at the Penn State Blaster’s Conference yesterday, which seemed to be pretty well received judging by the number of questions I got afterwards. The main thing explosive carriers need to know is they must be in the best 70% of companies nationwide in terms of accidents and roadside inspections. Or, put another way, they cannot be in the worst 30%. When DOT renews these permits every 2 years, they look at a carrier’s accident rates, and Out of Service rates, and if they are in the worst 30%, BOOM, no permit. So it is critical that a company monitor its OOS rates, and accident rates in the months leading up to the permit renewal. If you detect a problem, there is time to bring the percentages down, but you are over the limit at the time of renewal, it’s too late.
Some things carriers who have been denied have done to get the permit? Well, none of them are ideal, but… 1) send out non-HM trucks to generate a bunch of clean inspections. In other words, pump up the denominator, instead of limiting the numerator. 2) hire a lawyer to attack DOT’s data. DOT’s data is generally faulty. For example, many times a hazardous materials truck in inspected, but for whatever reason, the inspector does not list that inspection as a “hazmat inspection”, despite it stating right on the inspection that the vehicle was transporting HM. Again, not the best solution, as attorneys cost money, and many don’t know what they’re doing. Should you ever find yourself in this situation, call me, I know the best attorney. 3) Start a new company. Generally successful, as long as DOT doesn’t figure out that the new company is really an off-shoot of the old company that was denied a permit. The best thing you can do is not end up in that worst 30%.
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