Pennsylvania’s eight-year-old TrashNet program inspects thousands of trash trucks each year. Some say the effort aims to restrict trash imports. Others disagree.

By Robert Gluck

Simply, does inspection make things safer or merely restrict trash imports? And how, in the final analysis, does this question tie in with maintenance?

According to Steve Chizmar, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s (PennDOT’s) community relations coordinator for highway administration, PennDOT works with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Pennsylvania State Police on conducting safety inspections and weight enforcement activities. “These are done at locations specified by DEP as part of the TrashNet program,” Chizmar says. “The date and locations for these events are set up by the DEP.”

Chizmar says PennDOT has not made any specific determination that trash trucks are more or less safe than other types in the industry. “For both overweight and safety violations, fines can be imposed by issuing a citation,” he adds. “The decision to issue a citation is at the discretion of the officer.”

Waste trucks are inspected at certain checkpoints along Pennsylvania highways and at landfills. The authority to do this comes from the Waste Transportation Safety Program, also known as Act 90. When it was signed by the governor and enacted by the Pennsylvania State Legislature in 2002, Act 90 required owners of waste transportation vehicles that regularly transport municipal or residual waste to processing or disposal facilities in Pennsylvania to obtain written authorization from the DEP. This DEP-issued sticker must be displayed on waste trucks.

According to Ron Ruman, an information specialist with the DEP, his agency wants to make sure the trucks on Pennsylvania highways operate safely. “The inspection program is set up to make our highways safer,” he says. “That’s really the reason for it. There are a lot of vehicles on Pennsylvania roads, a lot of trucks certainly, and a good number of those are carrying waste. This program was established a number of years ago to really be a safety program. We don’t believe [it has any impact on the importing of trash], and we didn’t set it up to have any impact on the importing of trash.”

Ruman says it should be noted that all trucks, whether they are coming from within the state of Pennsylvania or not, are equally subject to these inspections.

Looking at the numbers from 2004, one gets the feeling the TrashNet Program is working, especially if you compare the figures to those from 2003.

Under the TrashNet program in 2004, the DEP inspected 8,577 trucks, and 1,095 of them, or 12.8%, were found to have violations. In 2003 the DEP inspected 4,400 trash trucks, and 34.3% were placed out of service as a result of violations.

“The top three violations were leaking trucks, no valid Act 90 stickers, and improperly enclosed tarps,” Ruman notes. “There were a total of 532 summary citations that were issued in the TrashNet program in 2004.”

What is Ruman’s interpretation of these statistics? “I don’t know exactly what the reason would be for having these three violations, but they’re probably things that are likely to happen given the fact that what a lot of these vehicles are carrying is liquid so there are going to be some leaks. With the tarps, many are required to have them, so that’s an issue because of the sheer numbers.”

Ruman says the DEP’s hope, with Act 90, is that more waste haulers will get acclimated to the program as time goes by. “Because Act 90 is still relatively new, some folks aren’t in the swing of things yet. We like to think folks aren’t purposely avoiding it. I do believe as time is going on, and I don’t have an actual number on this, but just from what I’m hearing, the Act 90 violations are decreasing. I think that, as much as anything, that might be because it’s a fairly new program that went into effect in 2002. So it could be that some folks are still getting acclimated to it. Hopefully, those violations will continue to decrease. Obviously, and the numbers bear this out, there was a tremendous decrease in the number of violations from 2003 to 2004.”

Ruman says the numbers have gone down in part because folks know that the DEP is out doing these inspections. “We’re pleased with the results; we believe it’s going well. Like I said, we’re doing this for safety reasons. We work with PennDOT and the state police to do these [inspections], and [safety is] the reason we’re doing it. We also certainly believe that, in addition to public safety, the trash haulers are going to want to make sure that their trucks are in compliance. Why? Because anytime a trash truck is pulled out of service, this is costing them money. So it is certainly an economic incentive for the companies to have their trucks in compliance with the regulations.”

What specific ways does the DEP work with PennDOT on these inspections? According to Ruman, the DEP and PennDOT set the inspections up jointly, and state police inspectors help out. “Obviously from the DEP’s standpoint we’re looking at specific violations that will be related to the waste that they are hauling. PennDOT may look at other issues as far as trucks go—the weight, how much they are carrying, that type of thing. The state police can look at the actual safety—if brakes are bad, things like that. Each agency would have a different emphasis as they look at the safety of the vehicles, and a lot of these things are not unique to trash trucks. Some of them are, because of what they are hauling. But a lot of them are not—things like the vehicle [being] overweight, [whether] the driver has been on the road too long, [whether the vehicle] is mechanically in good shape as far as the brakes and all of the other mechanical aspects. In that way we work with those two other agencies to try overall to make our highways here in Pennsylvania safer,” he says.

Other states, including Virginia and Michigan, are working on programs similar to Pennsylvania’s TrashNet. Virginia seems to be singling out trash haulers for safety inspections.

According to an article written for the Associated Press, US Representative Jo Ann Davis, R-VA, has introduced federal legislation to allow states to regulate trash flowing into Virginia. “The figures I’ve seen are alarming and once again highlight the need to ensure that if Virginia is forced to allow unlimited trash importation then at least the trucks flooding the highways should be safe,” Davis told the Associated Press.

Is one of the reasons for stepping up enforcement an effort to deter haulers from bringing in out-of-state trash? Perhaps. A look at which states rank near the top may provide clues to answering this all-important question. Michigan receives about 3 million tons of trash per year from other jurisdictions. Virginia accepts 5 to 6 tons of imports, and Pennsylvania ranks at the top with 10 million tons imported each year.

Why can’t a state just stop out-of-state haulers from disposing of trash within its borders? According to Ruman, the courts have designated trash as an article of commerce, so states cannot forbid haulers from disposing within their borders, but they can set safety standards as high as they want for out-of-state trucks.

Do states work together on this complex issue? “Not in a really formal way,” Ruman says. “I believe in the past there has been communication between states about sharing of information on maybe how we are conducting the program, the things we have found once we are out there, what works and what doesn’t work, how to best do it. I don’t believe we have actually shared any statistics. We don’t have any specific information on what other states are doing. It has been more of an informal thing where there might have been a phone call or maybe some information shared about what’s working. It’s been pretty much each state wanting to do its own thing.”

After hearing Ms. Davis’s quote regarding federal legislation to regulate trash flowing into Virginia, Ruman reiterated that the reason Pennsylvania is doing this is a safety issue. “It’s not just trash trucks that we need to be concerned with,” he said. “From the DEP’s perspective they are the ones we have some role in dealing with, so that’s why we deal with them. We have a lot of truck traffic in Pennsylvania. There are a number of major interstates that go through our state, and it’s been stated often that if you are going to get to New England from just about anywhere in the country, you are going to have to go through Pennsylvania. If you are going to get to the Midwest from New York, New Jersey, or New England, you are going to have to go through Pennsylvania to get there. So we have a tremendous amount of truck traffic of all kinds here. I don’t think trash trucks are any more or less dangerous than other trucks. But from our perspective these are the ones we’re involved with.”

Ruman is fully aware of Pennsylvania’s position as the top importer but counters with its legality and the fact that there are just as many trash trucks in the state that are locally owned and operated. “We are the top trash importer in the country and we have been for a number of years. The courts have prohibited, under the interstate commerce clause of the United States Constitution, states from stopping or regulating the importation of garbage or trash. This is the way the courts have interpreted this. But we inspect trucks that are traveling within state as well. We’re just as concerned with the safety of trucks that are going 15 miles across town as ones that are coming in from out of state. Although we’re the number-one importer of municipal waste in the country, we still have more that is generated and put into landfills from Pennsylvania than we bring in. So that would stand to reason that more than half the trucks on our roads are from within the state,” Ruman says.

Is the State of Pennsylvania looking closely at waste fleets? According to Ruman, whether it’s a fleet or one truck, the Act 90 law requires waste haulers to register with the DEP. “This helps us keep track of who’s hauling waste in Pennsylvania, and you do need to be registered to do that. The benefit there is we can see if a particular hauler has repeat violations. If we have some hauler that keeps coming up when we do inspections, well, that’s a red flag for us. If it’s such a problem that doesn’t seem to be corrected, we do have the option of either revoking that sticker or not issuing a new one when the renewal comes up. So in that regard that’s one thing the Act 90 program allows us to do. From an economic standpoint as well as wanting to do the right thing, they are going to want to be up to snuff. But there are a few folks out there that don’t seem to want to play by the rules. This will allow us to identify them hopefully more quickly than we could in the past.”

Violators in Pennsylvania can be fined, and this is, Ruman says, the great majority of haulers. However, if need be, if violations are determined to be serious enough or if the haulers are repeaters, they can be suspended. “The Act 90 authorization can be suspended or revoked,” he says. “If there is a safety issue, and that’s a state police issue, they can pull the truck off the road right there.”

Of course the solid waste industry, trash haulers specifically, do not want trash trucks pulled off the road.

The biggest reason? Follow the money trail again. According to the National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA), the voice of the solid waste services industry, the solid waste industry generated about $43.3 billion in revenue in 2001. The NSWMA has repeatedly come out on the record stating that inspecting is almost always done by states that are importing lots of out-of-state waste.

Nevertheless, in the final analysis, how can all this be tied in with maintenance?

Ruman says folks need to understand that the DEP has a responsibility to protect public health, safety, and the environment. “This is one way we do that. We have a lot of trash vehicles on our highways and they’re carrying loads that need to be safe and secured. When it’s leaking, that’s bad. When you have things coming off from underneath tarps that aren’t right, they can fly out and obscure vision. If they are small particles traveling at highway speeds, they can strike a windshield and cause a crash. We need to be safe. I hope the companies understand this. It’s not just good for the environment; it’s good business. An unsafe vehicle can cause crashes, and that gets in the way of the commerce. When these inspections are done and a vehicle is determined not to be safe, then it’s going to be pulled off the road and that’s going to cost the company money too. We believe most haulers understand this and they’re taking it seriously. Most of the reputable ones didn’t need this; they were doing it anyway because it is the right thing to do for their drivers and the environment. We hope most companies will take it seriously and do the type of maintenance that needs to be done to their vehicles. The numbers seem to be trending downward, and that is good. That’s good because the volume isn’t decreasing, so we think this means the safety issue is rising on some of their radar screens,” Ruman concludes.

Pennsylvania, PA–based Robert Gluck writes on technical subjects.

MSW - May/June 2005