From the Department Of Labor OSHA Administration. The below is still the law today.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Public Law 101-615, the Hazardous Materials Transportation Uniform Safety Act of 1990 (HMTUSA), 104 Stat. 3244, was enacted by Congress on November 17, 1990. Section 29 of HMTUSA reads as follows:
Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Labor, in consultation with the Secretary of Transportation and the Secretary of the Treasury, shall issue under section 6(b) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 655(b)) standards requiring any employer who receives a package, container, motor vehicle, rail freight car, aircraft, or vessel which contains a hazardous material and which is required to be marked, placarded, or labeled in accordance with regulations issued under the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act to retain the markings, placards, and labels, and any other information as may be required by such regulations on the package, container, motor vehicle, rail freight car, aircraft, or vessel, until the hazardous materials have been removed therefrom.
The Congressional rationale for this requirement was provided in Senate Report No. 101-449, (p. 16), as follows:
In November 1988, six Kansas City firemen were killed when the arson-caused fire they were fighting caused the violent explosion of an unmarked truck-trailer parked at a highway construction site. Because the trailer's hazardous materials placards had been removed, the firemen were unaware of the danger it posed. The Secretaries of Labor, Transportation and the Treasury should cooperate in order to ensure that placards and labels required on hazardous materials and explosives, both in transportation and at stationary facilities, be retained until such materials have been removed to the extent that they no longer pose a safety risk.
The sentence that says 'that placards and labels required on hazardous materials and explosives, both in transportation and at stationary facilities, be retained until such materials have been removed to the extent that they no longer pose a safety risk' to me means the placards must be applied or removed @ the dock as the Hazardous Material is added or removed from the trailer.
No doubt a pain in the but. Anyone know of any terminal in the system that follows this regulation? von.