So, has there been any real increase in inconvenience for hauling food?
I'm continuing to narrow down the direction I want to go when I get my own numbers.
Trying to decide if a reefer is worth the investment over a dry van.
Are there any types of hazmat that you never haul regardless of whether it gets washed out?Washing out after meat loads or hazmat is not optional.
Well, I guess he's gonna see a trailer with that stuff plastered on the side.Are there any types of hazmat that you never haul regardless of whether it gets washed out?
I mean what if a Tyson executive is riding in his gold plated Bentley limousine his illegal immigrant chauffer passes a Prime truck and it's got "poison" or "inhalation hazard" placards on it?
Wow. What a really dumb way to work things. Show up to a customer with a trailer full of blood, fat and whatever else does not project a good image for Marten.OTOH, (for example) our buddies at Marten have told me that the company refuses to pay for a washout until the trailer has been rejected, even when a bloody meat load or hazmat was in the trailer previously.
One wonders if they've changed their ways?
Hazmat packaging is supposed to prevent spills - you can't load leaking packages. Mostly residual chemical odors are the problem. A good washout with hot water, soap and a sanitizer will take care of it.The weird thing not to clean the trailer after meat or fish. And have no idea how can I move haz/mat in a food grade trailer.
We used to get refused plastic loads because we mostly hauled food and the garlic stank. Plastic will absorb that odor. We would lay down some coffee grounds or air out the trailer by leaving the door open overnight.Hazmat packaging is supposed to prevent spills - you can't load leaking packages. Mostly residual chemical odors are the problem. A good washout with hot water, soap and a sanitizer will take care of it.
Any lingering odor - spread some coffee grounds in the trailer, that will take care of it.
That sounds pretty gross and I love both onions and chocolate, Just not togetherHaul chocolate after onions
I had onions in my fridge go bad and then everything in the fridge tasted like purple. Until I cleaned it outchocolate tends to absorb odors more readily than a lot of other foods.
My standing comments to brokers.....
"Would you put it in your refrigerator at home and then eat the food out of it?"
Do you blanch them first?I store onion frozen and triple bagged
rarely.Do you blanch them first?
I keep carrots exactly like this)))rarely.
I'll use what I want fresh, then what's left of the onion I dice it up, triple bag it and then toss it into the door of the freezer. It's gone most of the time before it matters.
Hauled hazmat lots of times before food products. For Prime, it was usually some sort of photography stuff from New Jersey to Florida and then OJ out of Bradenton. More than a couple of times, it was air conditioner refrigerant to FL and then OJ.
For Swift, paint products, car batteries, some sort of stuff in totes, propane bottles... swimming pool chemicals... followed by something like Kraft mac n cheese, Quaker whatever, empty pop cans, cereal... As long as the hazmat was contained and the trailer clean, no issues. Once, when I hauled swimming pool chemicals to somewhere outside Atlanta, some of the powder got on the floor. Swift paid for a washout on a dry van and then I parked tail down on a slope with the doors hitched open overnight to dry it. Took that trailer to some appliance maker after that. They said they'd never gotten such a clean trailer.
It all depends on what the hazmat is and, most important, how well contained it is. But yes, food after hazmat is perfectly safe and perfectly fine. In fact, some food products themselves are hazmat when hauled in bulk.
As for @Mike's question, I did not notice any change in operations after implementation of this rule. I was still doing WalMart groceries when that all came down. The only thing I had to do was a short food safety class and quiz. Schneider probably ran all of their drivers through something similar. It had to do with temperature control and cleanliness. I didn't actually change anything I had been doing previously because I was already using common sense to do my job.
They made this new rule because there were way too many (usually independents) who wouldn't wash a trailer out until it was absolutely necessary: you couldn't stand next to it without gagging or the trailer was refused by a shipper. Saw a lot of that when I waited in washout lines. Apparently, some of these guys have to be told that the noxious goo dripping from the drain holes in the back of the trailer could make people sick...and probably did. Since they couldn't be bothered to keep their stuff clean or mind the temperatures (why should they care, they don't shop at that store), they need a government entity to tell them they have to. Sad.