Hauling Hazmat, no CDL or placards

If the load does in fact require placards then quite a bit of trouble. If it is being hauled as ORM-D, consumer quanity they he is fine other than the insecure load.

Haz-mat rules apply to any vehicle, even a Toyota Prius could require a CDL class C with haz-mat endorsement if it was hauling a placardable quanity of haz-mat.

Additionally, his employer needs to register as a haz-mat transporter, have the appropriate permits and proper insurance coverage eventhough they are most likely a private fleet.

 

49 CFR § 107.329 Maximum penalties.
(a) A person who knowingly violates a requirement of theFederal hazardous material transportation law, an order issued thereunder, this subchapter, subchapter C of the chapter, or aspecial permit or approval issued under this subchapter applicable to the transportation of hazardous materials or the causing of them to be transported or shipped is liable for a civil penalty of not more than $79,976 for each violation, except the maximum civil penalty is $186,610 if the violation results in death, serious illness, or severe injury to any person or substantial destruction of property. There is no minimum civil penalty, except for a minimum civil penalty of $481 for violations relating to training. When the violation is a continuing one, each day of the violation constitutes a separate offense.

 

Your so called friend... (Is it actually you?) is a violator. A criminal. A pawn, a proxy for a idiot touching that Hazmat on nothing at all.

He is not allowed to touch any Hazmat due to no endorsement on license.

Bossman is stupid, for allowing idiot to touch a hazmat load. Both will be burnt at the stake together when FMCSA, DOT, Commercial Enforcement Board and so on so forth finds out about this.

 

I don’t think they will get burned at the stake, more like 3 days in the electric chair.
Owner will be out of business.

 

Arrested no, fined and put out of service yes. His boss faces the stiffest penalties, it is criminal for a shipper to misrepresent a haz-mat load. The burden is on the shipper, but since they are a private fleet the shipper is also them.

 

Also, it would be a serious traffic offense to operate a CMV without the proper class of license or required endorsements for the product being hauled. It could result in a 60 day disqualification for the driver upon conviction if he has another serious traffic offense on his record.

 

Last of the great outlaws,,, I'm not proud of this, but many times, I'd pick up a pallet of hazardous material, paint or ink usually, I had no Haz Mat endorsement and wouldn't placard the wagon, but wasn't going over any scales and was late at night. I figured, if I placarded the trailer, I'd stick out like a sore thumb and would surely be stopped. Made sure all my lights worked, never had a problem. That was 15 years ago. I'd probably not recommend that today.

 

Now that is something I will need to research.

In the first instance, I did appreciate you taking the time to defend your position vs my thought that you were the problem driver in the original OP posting. But we sorted all that out.

I'll have to look into the situation vs Law Enforcement at a scale house or some such. Its such a dumb move and I would personally imagine it's a arrestable offense. Occasionally people in this state in my county in particular, about once a month they ignore the expenses and trouble getting a CDL or having the right endorsement etc and go right ahead and violate the law. Next thing they know they run into the Police Officers around here that seek out such violators. Then they go to court to plea nolle presq... (No contest, treated as same as Guilty plea)

Here is Minnesota's table of offenses. There are reams of violations against both Carrier and Drivers related to this topic.

MN does not provide a hard specific citation fine, but does classify it as a misdemeanor and requires a Court on everything.

CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS 49CFR383.93(b)(4)CRIMINALMISDEMEANORLacking endorsement for CDL where vehicle is used to transport hazardous materials

Source

http://www.mncourts.gov/Documents/4/Public/Traffic_Violations/CFR 2014- updated 8-18-2014.pdf

I looked into it briefly and found a can of worms here.

That driver will be a world of hurt and so will the carrier that allowed this to happen. Arrest is a real possibility. Fines into 5 figures is potential against driver and particularly against carrier.

Has anyone had a Hazmat Violation ?

It is a Federal Offense and a serious one, of many possible HM offenses that are actually related can be stacked on top of the endorsement. The first act that happens generally is the driver and rig is placed OOS when caught without HM endorsement. And then goes from there. It will never stop until the courts bang the gavel on fines and sentancing which potentially includes prison among other things.

From what scraps of fines I could read it approaches one million according to talk online. But nothing hard FMCSA facts in penalties, apparently it will be determined by the court once convicted. First against the driver and then against the motor carrier stupid enough to allow that act.

Edited.

Additional penalties assessed in the past...

I have bent over backwards trying to come up with actual hard facts here. It's really difficult. for me. I should point anyone interested towards Moose and others who are much more versed in this stuff. I am a relative lightweight when it comes to these things. But no one will say I did not try hard to quote actual facts and avoided disinformation.

DOT Increases Penalties for Non-Compliant Hazmat Shipping