America’s oilfield drivers deserve the opportunity to obtain HAZMAT endorsements and receive proper training, equipment, and pay that reflects the risks and responsibilities of transporting hazardous material.

Driving hazardous materials can be dangerous and opens drivers up to heightened risks and responsibilities compared to the transport of non-hazardous materials. Yet, in oilfields across the United States, drivers without HAZMAT endorsements regularly transport oil and gas waste.

To address these ongoing harms, Truckers Movement for Justice, Ohio Valley Allies, and the undersigned organizations call on the U.S. Department of Transportation, particularly the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, to take the following actions:

1. Use their enforcement authority to investigate the rampant failures of shippers in America’s oilfields to properly class their loads of hazardous materials prior to shipment;

2. Conduct a formal safety audit for all carriers operating in oilfields across the United States;

3. Allow any oilfield driver engaged in the transport of oil and gas waste the opportunity to obtain a HAZMAT endorsement to allow that driver the opportunity to lawfully transport loads of oil and gas waste that meet the HAZMAT Rules’ definition of hazardous material.

4. Provide carriers engaged in the transport of oil and gas waste, including oil and gas waste that meets the HAZMAT Rules’ definition of hazardous material, 90 days to obtain proper insurance for the transport of hazardous material.

5. Require carriers to develop training in coordination with drivers, other oil field workers, and communities impacted by oil and gas waste generation, storage, handling, processing, and transport, to ensure oil and gas waste that meets the HAZMAT Rules’ definition of hazardous material is safely managed during loading, offloading, and all stages of transit.

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