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Averitt | Placards

L

ltl lifer

Sr. Citizen & Gold Member
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Should you have the opportunity to pull a load that requires numbered placards (very rare in the LTL side of it) and you find your trailer placarded with something like this or are handed placards to apply or are instructed to make up placards, keep in mind that this is as illegal as it comes. Hand written numbers are as bad as no placards at all. Refuse the load and do NOT pull it. The $10,000 fine will be ALL yours. :uncomfortableness:
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Maybe in walker county but if DOT pulls you its $2500 per placard violation (X = $10k). Know that for a fact).
 
Dot fines are paid through the local courthouses with the set fines as written, but 10k sounds good on the radio (computer) Locals, city, county could care less about placards. I know for a fact too that placarding fines are in the low 100.00 range in our Knoxville area. I spoke with a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer that is strictly commercial vehicle enforcement and he told me the fine is cheap and set by the counties but the main concern is the CSA points that go against our record. But like you say some counties charge 2500.00 a placard . I agree with your main point is check the placards/paperwork before hooking to keep the night rolling smooth. Here is another example of a fine from Orange Co. California ;
27903 (a) A Placards Indicating Type of Hazardous Cargo
Required
25 30 21.00 15 15 5 6 4 121.00 40 35 1 0.00 = $197.00 1a
 
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Just one of many sites that proves my point. I guess podunk towns (LC) don't know or care about HAZ mat but in the real world it is taken seriously. If you were to bring me a load and we were both running to a meet and your placards or paperwork were not in order, you'd be doing an impromptu laydown because this ol boy will NOT pull it. It is $2500 per placard x4 = $10,000. Ask the USF Duggan driver I was running with 8-10 years ago. He'll remember that fine.
But...believe what you want or will (you believe many myths).
http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/part-209/appendix-B
 
You are correct LC, Lenoir City Tn, Law Enforcement could care less about commercial vehicles, they leave that to the THP. We have enough community policing to do without being on placard patrol. Tennessee doesn't seem to be into about robbing the trucker with extreme fines. They allow the federal CSA to discipline the drivers and companies.
 
I can't tell you who sets the fines but I can tell you that it is x the number of placards and I don't want to pay it.
 
Yea, I don't think that I'm really supposed to remember all that stuff, I'm just supposed to know when I need to ask someone else.
 
ABFer said:
Yea, I don't think that I'm really supposed to remember all that stuff, I'm just supposed to know when I need to ask someone else.
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On the contrary. It is the DRIVER'S responsibility to make sure it's right. You can say "The shipper of the dispatcher said the trailer needed blah blah blah" and the DOT officer will be steady writing those tickets.
In the case of RickyRicardo's trailer. Let's say they were all wrong. The fine would be $50k (5*4 = 20 *2500 = $50,000). I check my paperwork for compliance before leaving anywhere. If I were to meet CM at a meet spot and he was placarded, I would look at his paperwork before I moved from the trailer I brought. If anything is wrong on the paperwork or the trailer, we would both be doing laydowns that night because I would not pull it.
Hazmat is serious business and many many drivers don't realize their vulnerability to fines and the nonchalant attitude towards it. I don't know how many times I have heard "Well the dispatcher said these are the placards that need to be on the trailer" and I look over the paperwork and discover the paperwork is incorrect/non-existent or the placards are all wrong. You won't get it by me, that I can promise you. And this from drivers that have taken the HM232 at their terminals and have HazMat endorsements on their CDL's. It simply amazes me at the ignorance.

Oh and btw....The picture shown on RickyRicardo's trailer tells me that trailer came out of BTR.
 
I just wish I could remember to stop at the RR crossings when I'm placarded.
 
I work LTL and pull standard hazmat and specific number placards all the time. Always check your paperwork, do not depend on someone else to be right. Also, when using those placard hangers run a piece of tape across it. Those placards can blow out of there.
 
Dracula said:
I work LTL and pull standard hazmat and specific number placards all the time. Always check your paperwork, do not depend on someone else to be right. Also, when using those placard hangers run a piece of tape across it. Those placards can blow out of there.
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Never rely on the dispatcher or the supervisor. They want the load out of their hair and could care less if the placards are right. You, as the driver, are the ultimate responsibility. Make sure your sh*t is right and you'll have no problems.
 
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