How many time do you waste each weak going thru the bill packet to review your bills. Then you find a possible billing error, then you go to hook up and there are no placards or the wrong placards. Then you take this info back to your dispatch, they do not know, then they talk to the dock and they do not want to help or they delay you and hour before they get it fixed. Yes, I flip many of them myself to try to get down the road but many times they are billing errors, so what can I do other than give to them. The safety issues, delay time(but left unpaid if under an hour), Of course if the DOT stops the driver then it is his/her fault. When you bring this up you get black balled at some terminals. It is very aggravating to talk about this every week.
TForce | Who is incharge of putting on placards at your terminal?
- Thread starter MFASU
- Start date
I don't know what your looking for?
You can either work it out with the TM,or sift supervisor.
If your concerns about this very important issue is falling on deaf ears.
You can give the safety department,or human resource department a call.
Somebody over the head of uncaring authority figures you are trying to deal with.
There must be somebody in this company that can light a fire under the ones you are having difficulty getting their acts together?
After all I know full well our company doesn't want to pay the fines DOT dishes out when any haz-mat issues have to be addressed by them.
You can either work it out with the TM,or sift supervisor.
If your concerns about this very important issue is falling on deaf ears.
You can give the safety department,or human resource department a call.
Somebody over the head of uncaring authority figures you are trying to deal with.
There must be somebody in this company that can light a fire under the ones you are having difficulty getting their acts together?
After all I know full well our company doesn't want to pay the fines DOT dishes out when any haz-mat issues have to be addressed by them.
I'm just a lowly old city driver.
But I go through my DR's before I leave on my route,and if I have been offered the orange haz mat card to sign off for placards or not.
If I see I need them I just go out and flip them on my pretrip.
Whenever I take an appointment out in a pup that came in on an inbound lane,and the placards are stiil on it,if I don't need them I just flip them back.
I don't much care who didn't do their job.
I'm the one taking the load,or empty out,and I feel its up to me to make sure I've got it right.
But then this is just me.
But I go through my DR's before I leave on my route,and if I have been offered the orange haz mat card to sign off for placards or not.
If I see I need them I just go out and flip them on my pretrip.
Whenever I take an appointment out in a pup that came in on an inbound lane,and the placards are stiil on it,if I don't need them I just flip them back.
I don't much care who didn't do their job.
I'm the one taking the load,or empty out,and I feel its up to me to make sure I've got it right.
But then this is just me.
accelerator
TB Legend
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If you feel there is an error after looking at the freight if it is available for you to see, then I would ask for a copy of the original, or just see what the shipper say's it should be placarded, this is very easy and dispatch should not give you a problem for wanting to be legal, and allway's keep in mind, everything has to match.
I am a city driver so it is easy for me to do this, and I have had issues with haz- mat placarding in the past, if the truck is not rite and I can prove it, the truck goes no where until it is corrected, if dispatch does not like it, I do not care, it is just that simple.
For a Road driver, the dispatching terminal can produce a copy of the original BOL , or originals whichever applies and you can make a better decision if need be.
What is a orange haz mat card? I saw one of those about a year ago, then they kind of went away.
accelerator
TB Legend
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THE ORANGE HAZ MAT CARD , is offered or supposed to be offored to all drivers making them aware they have haz mat and what the placards need to be on the side of you trailer and the signature required is cerification for them that you have read , sighned and you are aware.. We see how well this program is being implemented, at our terminal it depends on how busy we are.
BusterNite
TB Legend
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This is a huge problem. Different rules for different terminals. I noticed NBR does nothing for placarding. They don't even take the old ones off the pup before loading it. The rules used to be that when the trailer was closed out it would be placarded by the dock workers. Im always either putting placards on or takeing old placards off. Is this part of my pre trip time. It can take up to a half hour to scrape 4 placards off. Bottom line, Its the drivers responsibility to have his paper work and haz mat in order when he leaves the yard. Catch 22 again!
BusterNite
TB Legend
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Another thing that bothers me. Did you know that drivers are also supposed to know where on the trailer the haz mat is located. Most docks do not even mark on the dock manifest trailer diagram where the haz mat has been loaded. I have wasted so much of my own time talking to managment about this problem. Haz mat rules regarding paper work, loading, placarding, in this company has major issues.
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I feel the person in charge of flipping placards either way should be the last person to handle the Haz-Mat freight.
I also review my Delivery Receipts, especially if I see placards on the trailer. 9/10 times they have not been flipped to blanks.
When the trailer is docked, it's tough to get to the placard, but it can be done.
This is an issue that needs to be resolved.
I also review my Delivery Receipts, especially if I see placards on the trailer. 9/10 times they have not been flipped to blanks.
When the trailer is docked, it's tough to get to the placard, but it can be done.
This is an issue that needs to be resolved.
BusterNite
TB Legend
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The orange card and the flagging paper work is set in place to notify the driver of the haz mat (risk) he has on board. Something that terminals sometimes do or don't do. We have big haz mat issues. The company needs to take haz mat issues more serious. I do!!!
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I've run across many placards like that.
You get a good peel going and it decides to break off into hundreds of pieces.
Whenever I placed placards on a trailer I would always fold a very small portion of the corner so it would easier to peel off.
I guess it depends on the terminal you are out of and if they follow company policy.
I would think it would be the dock forman`s responsibility(under his direction) to placard a trailer before it is closed. Instead, just as the driver is getting ready to leave on time, it becomes common knowlege that placards are needed!So now it`s the drivers & dispatch( which will never leave his cosy invirons) responsibility? What happened to the dock crew, actually the dock lead/forman dropped the ball,did a short cut, even left the seal off, another short cut that cost someone down the line their time to fix...Oh yea the driver gets stuck for 20 minutes or more doing all of these chores that could of been done in 5 minutes by the dock crew,but don`t have the time???So it`s more cost effective to have a driver do this for free. Really it`s the TM`S gig since he is suppose to know what is going on at his facility..Or mabe it`s his bosses responsibility..I`m sure this merry go round will continue for a while longer, real sad though.....Wonder how it would be if I backed a trailer up to the dock & left it about 12 inches from the dock plate & expected someone to load & unload just inches away from where it should be? or expect the hostler to come by and tidy it up for them...wast of time!!
at my terminal it is the jocky doing the hook or moving a closed out trailer from the dock the jocky will be told what placards it needs,, if any.The driver will then check his bills with his placards and see if it is all good and if not will tell road dispatch and it will be corrected by a jocky or the driver ,,, in short jocky placards driver checks
BusterNite
TB Legend
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This was the last rule that I heard. Jockys would do the placarding because of all the new rules regarding safety and who is allowed in the yard and who is not. But its still not being done.
UPSFreightDUId
TB Lurker
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At my terminal, I've never seen these orange hazmat cards either, here the driver is responsible, the dock workers fill out the hazmat portion of the city/linehaul manifest, then the driver goes through their bills, and placards the trailer accordingly. The Jockey takes/flips the placards off at the end of the I/B shift.
I've never liked our placarding methods. At my last job the person who loaded hazmat was to placard immediately after signing on the freight. Then the person unloading hazmat was to remove placards immediately. We were told this is a law, but I dont know. It makes sense because trailers in the yard or the dock should be placarded correctly at all times. What if there were a fire in the yard? Emergency crews need to know how to respond. MTY's should not be sitting around with placards on them and yards loads with hazmat should not be sitting around with no placards. Who would take the fall if this dangerous situation turned ugly? There aint no driver to blame!
Another thing I dont understand is why are all these heavy vans being pulled by single axle tractors? Single axle drives are only rated for 20,000 lbs. Why no twin screws for vans? This is an obvious overweight situation.
These are all the same as the ice on the trailer, everyone knows, but they all look the other way.
Another thing I dont understand is why are all these heavy vans being pulled by single axle tractors? Single axle drives are only rated for 20,000 lbs. Why no twin screws for vans? This is an obvious overweight situation.
These are all the same as the ice on the trailer, everyone knows, but they all look the other way.
BusterNite
TB Legend
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I would think that placarding after the trailer is loaded and closed out makes more sence. Because you don't know what the total shipments of hazmat will be until completely loaded.