ATA Petitions PHMSA to Make It Easier to Use Consolidation Bins for Hazmats
This story appears in the Dec. 6 print edition of Transport Topics.
American Trucking Associations last week asked the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to facilitate the use of consolidation bins in transporting small packages of hazmat materials.
In a Nov. 29 letter, ATA said PHMSA should relax the agency’s current regulation mandating that consolidation bins be labeled for each class of hazardous materials they contain.
Consolidation bins, which must be less than 64 cubic feet, are used by motor carriers to consolidate and transport small hazardous materials packages.
“The expanded use of consolidation bins will enhance the safe transportation of hazardous materials by reducing damage to packages that can lead to releases of hazardous materials and by improving motor carrier compliance with the segregation and blocking and bracing regulations,” said ATA’s comment letter, which was signed by Richard Moskowitz, ATA’s vice president and regulatory affairs counsel.
“Their use also will improve motor carrier efficiency,” Moskowitz added.
ATA’s petition said consolidation bins could help motor carriers secure small packages and would reduce the number of hazardous materials released from damaged packages.
“Consolidation bins can help carriers properly block and brace small packages,” Moskowitz told Transport Topics.
The use of consolidation bins also would reduce the number of load-securement violations, ATA said.
Current hazardous materials regulations require consolidation bins to display a label for each of the hazardous materials packages placed inside the bin. Since it is not practical for motor carriers to change the labels on these bins each time a new package is loaded or unloaded, motor carriers avoid using consolidation bins to transport hazardous materials packages, ATA said.
ATA’s petition said the labeling requirement requires training for drivers on when to place and remove labels as freight is picked up and dropped off. Since drivers do not know the hazard classes of freight they will pick up prior to arriving at the consignor’s facility, the rule requires each motor vehicle to be equipped with multiple sets of all labels.
In addition, it is physically difficult to properly affix labels on a reusable consolidation bin in a manner that ensures they do not come off while being transported, ATA said.
“In a less-than-truckload environment, when you’re making pickups and deliveries throughout the day, the driver would literally have to peel the label off and put a new label on, depending on what he put in or took out of the bin,” Moskowitz told TT. “That is such an onerous process that it creates a disincentive to use this containment method, even though it would actually enhance safety.”
PHMSA said it agrees there are safety benefits to using consolidation bins, and that it may be impractical for a motor carrier to label and remove labels for packages transported in consolidation bins.
“Therefore, we are proposing to allow an exception from labeling for consolidation bins used for the convenience of a motor carrier,” PHMSA said. “However, PHMSA is concerned that, in the absence of any marking or label on the consolidation bin, a person other than the person who had placed packages in the bin may have no indication the bin contains a hazardous material.”
PHMSA said it proposed to remedy this concern by requiring the bin to be marked in a manner that indicates it contains a hazardous material.
ATA’s comments also addressed PHMSA’s proposal to incorporate certain industry standards into the hazardous materials regulations. ATA said it opposed incorporation unless the standards are subjected to notice and comment and are made available to the regulated community free of charge.
