It's a Team's Life

So your hauling placarded HAZMAT

While waiting to cross the scale in Arizona I saw a truck blow by the scale and then watched as an officer took off in pursuit with lights flashing.   This driver was not going to have a good day.  

This is not something I want to see in my rearview mirrors right after I drive by a scale.   I had entered the Arizona scale even though my transponder had given me a green light, as I knew that having a placarded HAZMAT load requires us to ignore a bypass signal and enter Arizona scales.

We transport a lot of hazardous materials and it is in our best interest to know the federal and state regulations.   In my spare time I decided to do a little light reading and verify what I THOUGHT I knew about scales in each state.

First I searched the PrePass website under bypass restrictions that brought up a list of the states.   Each state that uses PrePass has state regulations and where all of the states scales are located.   I could only find two states that we must enter when we are placarded.   Arizona and Arkansas.  I kept looking for Ohio on the PrePass list as I had heard for years we had to enter when placarded HAZMAT.

Now my curiosity was piqued and next I visited the Ohio DOT state regulations and that is where I found this tidbit that made me stop and chuckle.   I wonder over the years how many times we have entered the Ohio scales with a placarded HAZMAT load when we did not need to.   Of particular interest is the note following the picture:

I also used the website COOPS are Open for some of my research as not all states have PrePass and that is where I verified that Idaho is also on the list of states where we must enter scales when placarded.  

Another tidbit that helps us is if not placarded we are not required to stop at railroad tracks.  

The policy with us is always when in doubt enter an open scale even if given a green light.  

Web sites used:

Coops are Open

http://www.coopsareopen.com

PrePass list of states

http://www.prepass.com/services/prepass/SiteInformation/Pages/SiteInformationAlabama.aspx

Ohio DOT

http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Operations/Maintenance/Permits/Documents/2011TDGB%5B1%5D.pdf