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Current tie-down rules receive one year extension


cargo

By Christine Souza

Each harvest season, California’s tomato sector hauls about 400,000 loads of tomatoes to packinghouses and processing facilities throughout the state. This year’s tomato harvest could have seen incredible delays, however thanks to a one-year extension granted last week by the California Highway Patrol, haulers of tomatoes and other agricultural commodities will be able to transport harvested crops without having to immediately adhere to stricter federal cargo securement regulations.

“With harvest only months away, California agriculture was faced with the same predicament as last year which was the possibility of haulers having to add excessive straps to their loads. This would have drastically increased labor needs and delayed perishable specialty crops form getting to the processor,” said Emily Robidart, California Farm Bureau Federation National Affairs director of field crops and farm policy. “As a result of our partnering with the CHP, FMCSA, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture, California’s ag haulers were issued a one-year reprieve so that they can maintain the same methods of transportation as used before.”

In a May 2 letter to Robidart, CHP Commissioner J.A. Farrow stated that the request for a one-year extension was reasonable and therefore granted. The extension would give regulators sufficient time to “determine if these containers (used currently) afford an equal or greater level of load security, as compared to the requirements of the adopted federal cargo securement regulation, and use that data to amend the regulations as appropriate,” Farrow said.

Members of the state’s tomato sector met with representatives of the CHP’s Commercial Vehicle Section at a session hosted by the CFBF in Sacramento last month. There tomato haulers learned that an extension would enable haulers of tomatoes and other perishable agricultural commodities to maintain their current practice of hauling for another year or until the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMSCA) releases its final ruling on the matter.

CFBF has worked closely with state and federal officials to provide them with information that supports that current methods used by haulers of the state’s agriculture products are safe and meet federal requirements.

Last November, a FMCSA team of engineers spent several days at the California Highway Patrol Academy in West Sacramento testing containers used to haul agricultural commodities, everything from tomato tubs to cotton bales. This was to determine if California’s methods for moving product from the field to the processor are safe and meet federal standards. FMCSA engineers have gathered all of the data and are in the process of drafting their reports.

While major retrofits might eventually be needed for trailers used to haul plastic bins and wooden boxes, one area of concern that was identified during the testing conducted by the FMCSA is the peaking of cargo. Historically, processing tomatoes and carrots are hauled in large tubs and the products form a dome that extend over the top of the tub.

“There is a concern based on the results of the testing that the current standard configuration of hauling tomatoes (or any agricultural product being transported in tubs if there are being hauled at a level above the container) does not meet the basic requirements of the intent of the federal cargo securement,” said Sgt. Jim Epperson of the CHP Commercial Vehicle Section. “Basically the peak of the tomatoes is too high and the tomatoes are falling out.”

As a result, Epperson said, agricultural haulers will likely be faced with three options: transport the load using the method historically used, but tarp the load to prevent spillage; load evenly to the top of the tub; or peak the load, but do so adhering to standards set by the CHP.

“However, because the reports have not been issued yet by the FMCSA, it is hard to know exactly what to expect, which is why we asked for an extension to the exemption,” Robidart said. “It is also important to note that the reports will include a public comment period as well as an implementation period. During that time, the industry can voice its concerns on what works and what doesn’t.”

Ross Siragusa, California Tomato Growers Association President and CEO, who attended the meeting held at the Farm Bureau office last month, expressed concerns about the potential options outlined by the CHP such as the amount of additional time it will take to tarp the loads, the cost involved, and with the third option, a significant reduction in the amount of tomatoes being hauled per load.

“The third option is you reduce the load so that the tomatoes are no longer above the edge of the bin, which means you are going to reduce the total load size by roughly 30 percent,” Siragusa said. “When talking to some of the industry, the percentage is probably going to higher than that in terms of total load loss, so you end up adding more trucks on the roadway.”

Epperson said agricultural haulers have made incredible strides in the past year in proving the safety of their methods.

“We’ve come a long way. We have come from basically mandating that they tarp plus six straps for every tomato bin, to allowing basically what historically has been done, with a 4-6 percent load reduction,” Epperson said. “That doesn’t mean that they have to do it that way, this is just an alternate method of compliance.”

Siragusa expressed his appreciation for being able to work closely with the CHP and the FMCSA to develop some common ground on this very complicated issue.

“The positive about this is there is a dialogue,” Siragusa said. “They are willing to talk to the industry and if we consider where we were a year ago when they were talking about tarping, that would have increased the number of loads considerably and caused problems in terms of delay of the harvests.”

In January 2004, the FMCSA developed new regulations for interstate motor carriers. As part of the effort to harmonize cargo securement, CHP implemented new tie-down regulations for intrastate commerce in January 2007. Discussions held between Farm Bureau, other agricultural groups, federal transportation officials and the CHP, led to the granting of a temporary exemption for the tie-down requirements until Dec. 1, 2007 to allow data to be gathered for studies. This exemption was extended to April 30, 2008, by the CHP to allow time to complete the safety study. The new exemption deadline is April 30, 2009.

Haulers may receive the extension if they have contacted and retained an exemption from the CHP and if they continue forwarding monthly reports to the CHP Commercial Vehicle Section. To apply for an extension, contact the CHP Commercial Vehicle Section at (916) 445-1865.

(Christine Souza is a reporter for Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)

*photo provided by CFBF.

Ag Alert Story, June 27, 2007:

Individual CHP approval needed for tie-down exemption
By Christine Souza, CFBF

To apply for the exemption

Contact the California Highway Patrol at (916) 445-1865.

Forms

Exemption Form (PDF, 124 KB)
Monthly Report Form (PDF, 39 KB

Background information

Exemption Instructions (PDF, 287 KB)
Frequently Asked Questions (PDF, 23 KB)

How to secure loads

These examples, from the California Highway Patrol, show how to protect against shifting and falling cargo for hauling bins of produce, whether in multiple bins or boxes or bins that have been unitized or secured as one unit of cargo. Ag haulers of perishable products must retrofit trucks to meet these standards by next harvest season unless the temporary exemption is extended past Dec. 1.

truck

Example 1: Multiple Articles
1. 4x4-foot bins loaded with apples
2. 48 bins at 500 lbs. each
3. 4,000 lbs. per row, 24,000 lbs. total
Two straps first row (first 10 feet)
One strap each row thereafter
Each strap rated with a working load limit of 2,000 lbs.

Example 2: Unitized
1. 4x4-foot bins loaded with apples
2. 48 bins unitized to a single article
3. Cargo is 24 feet long
Two straps first row (first 10 feet)
One strap each 10 linear feet
Total working load limit of straps must equal at least 12,000 lbs.

 

Cargo Securement Requirements*

The rules are based on model regulations developed in a cooperative program between the United States and Canada. To read the FMCSA's requirements, see the second link below.

*Provided by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration