Letter to the Editor: Hazmat Regulations

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t seems to me that special interest and public advocacy groups are suffering from the same “Do it now! Give me what I want immediately” sickness.

Should we improve our controls over hazardous materials shipments?

Undoubtedly. Is there a danger that a hazmat shipment may be used in the future to cause harm to our nation? Certainly. However, we have come a great distance in the handling and transportation of hazardous materials, and we should proceed with some caution in further regulating these shipments and the people who transport them.

Coupled with a shortage of trucking capacity, we see a decreasing percentage of carriers even willing to handle hazmat shipments. The regulations governing these shipments and the increasing cloud of potential liability are the forces driving more and more carriers away from this type of freight.

We must balance the desire to make our nation safer with the realization that these shipments, as potentially dangerous as they are, are essential to the economic life of our country.

George Imperatore

I>Vice President

ld River LLC

iver Vale, N.J.

This letter appeared in the Nov. 29 edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today