Knowledge base · Driving with a hazardous load
हिन्दी में पढ़ेंA loaded tanker is not a truck with something heavy in it. The load moves, the centre of gravity is high, and a great deal of what goes wrong happens standing still — at the gantry, at a halt, or at the moment of unloading.
Taught on: Tanker Crew Safety — 1 dayLiquid flowing through a pipe builds static charge. Earthing gives that charge a path to ground. Without it a spark can jump inside the vapour space, where the mixture is already in the flammable range.
The liquid surges. On braking it runs forward and pushes the vehicle on; on a bend it swings outward. A full or an empty tank does not do this — a half tank does it worst.
Brake early and gently, and be off the brake before the surge arrives. Late hard braking is what puts a tanker over on a bend, not speed alone.
Valves closed and locked, hoses stowed, manhole and dome covers secure, no seepage anywhere, placards clean and correct, extinguishers charged and in date, and the TREM card in the cab.
Not in a market, not under a flyover or overhead line, not near a school or hospital, and not in a residential lane. Use a designated halt with open ground around the vehicle.
No. The rule requires the vehicle to be parked somewhere safe from fire and explosion and to remain at all times under the control and supervision of the driver or of some other competent person above the age of eighteen.
Stop away from people and traffic, switch the engine off, keep all ignition sources away, stand upwind, read the TREM card, and call the numbers on the emergency panel. Do not try to move the vehicle somewhere better.
Only if the TREM card says so and it can be done from a safe position — closing a valve, for instance. Anything beyond that is for the emergency services. Your first job is to keep people away.
Visibility drops and so does alertness, and a placard nobody can read is a placard that does not work. Keep the reflective markings clean, and stop when you are tired rather than at the next town.
The helper or cleaner who travels with the vehicle. He is usually the one standing at the hose during loading, and in an incident he is the nearest person to it.
Whatever is posted, and usually less. The limit assumes an ordinary vehicle; a high centre of gravity and a moving load mean the safe speed on a bend is well below the sign.
Because a vehicle running under a national permit and carrying dangerous goods must be: the body white with a dry-leaf-brown ribbon five centimetres wide around the middle of the exterior, and the driver's cabin in orange.
Treating the earthing clamp as paperwork — clipping it to paint, to a rusted point, or to nothing at all, and signing the register anyway.
This page is written for guidance. Where money, a licence or somebody's safety turns on it, read the rule itself — every answer says which one. Disclaimer and sources.
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