General Spring Weight Load Restriction Bulletin #1
Effective 8:00 AM, Monday, March 8, 2010 weight restrictions will be imposed and enforced on all state trunkline highways within the State of Michigan from the southern Michigan border, north to and including the Mackinac Bridge. State trunkline highways typically carry M, I, or US designations.
In the restricted area the following will apply:
On routes designated as "All Season Routes" (green and gold on MDOT Truck Operator’s Map), there will be no reduction in legal axle weights.
On routes designated as "Seasonal" (solid or dashed red on the MDOT Truck Operator’s Map), there will be weight reduction of 25% for rigid pavements and 35% for flexible pavements.
Extended permits will be valid for oversize only in the weight restricted area.
Single trip permits will not be issued for overweight loads or loads exceeding 14 feet in width in the weight restricted areas.
Weight restriction information and updates may be obtained by calling 1-800-787-8960. For companies located in Canada or New Jersey, information may be obtained by calling: 517-373-6256. Detailed weight restriction information may be obtained by visiting www.michigan.gov/truckers or by calling: 517-373-2121. Refer to the MDOT Truck Operator Map for route designations.
What is it? Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 (CSA 2010) is a program being rolled out by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to improve truck and bus safety. The aim is to reduce commercial vehicle incidents, injuries and fatalities.
Cindy Douglass, the Assistant Administrator and Chief Safety officer of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), addressed concerns about the organization during her keynote address to the Dangerous Goods Advisory Council (DGAC) annual conference, held this year in San Antonio, Texas.
In the US, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved the Hazardous Material Transportation Safety Act of 2009. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has been under fire from the House for its "cozy" relationships with industry.
As a result of this approval, PHMSA will be required to conduct safety fitness tests of the applicant before issuing or re-issuing special permits. It also allows PHMSA to charge for the processing of the applications.
does your company have an emergency response assistance plan (ERAP)?
has it been reviewed by Transport Canada?
do you use a third party provider to provide the technical information?
do you use a third party provider to respond to the incident site for remediation?
If you are using a third party for incident response, have you:
recently audited the provider?
ensured that they have the proper tools to handle your products?
provided training on your products?
ensured that they have the proper equipment, i.e. UN specification packaging, correct specification tankage, hoses, couplings, etc.?
checked that they are following the closure instructions for the UN specification packaging?
checked to make sure that they are providing the right technical information?
checked to make sure that they can respond to wherever the incident is?
Keep in mind that when there is a dangerous goods incident involving an ERAP, it is the ERAP holder who is held responsible for the emergency response.
The placarding saga continues. Transport Canada has issued an ALERT to explain (?) the options available when a large means of containment that requires placards is loaded into a large means of transport. So if we have 2 IBC’s (class 8 and class 3) to be shipped, our options are:
Option 1: for each primary class placard and UN number, duplicate on the outside of the truck.
Recently, PHMSA published a listing of the 130 civil penalty cases it closed in the 2008 calendar year. The total dollar amount collected for these violations was over $1.1 million. While I fully support inspections and investigations that lead to penalties for non-compliance, it makes me wonder what the hazmat community can do to save themselves from these costly mistakes.
The federal government has made changes to the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act which will increase security for dangerous goods. Most of this is being implemented due to Vancouver hosting the Olympics next year. For the most part there is nothing for anyone to do as there are no regulations for these changes. So there is nothing for us to comply with. The amendments to the regulations for these changes look like they will take some time as I imagine that plenty of people will want to comment on the proposed changes.
More than 100 shippers in the US have formed a new pressure group to urge Congress to raise the legal vehicle weight limit on US motorways.
Kraft Foods, MillerCoors and International Paper were among the companies to join the Coalition for Transportation Productivity (CTP), which called for a change in the law to allow larger vehicles.
Get ready people, here come the road trains or "long combination vehicles" as is known in the industry. Ontario is proposing a one (1) year trial period for these trucks. When did Ontario move to the southern hemisphere and become part of the Australian outback?
