2,100 Gallons and Nowhere Legal to Leave It

Access road shoulder - no. It is a posted No Parking public street, and a placarded vehicle may not be left standing within 5 feet of the traveled portion of a public highway. Beyond the parking rule, an unattended placarded tank of gasoline on a public shoulder is exactly the target the security regulations were written about, and state and local restrictions can be stricter than the federal rule - they apply on top of it, not instead of it.

Closed shopping plaza lot - no. Private property without the owner's consent is not a legal place to park a placarded cargo tank, and "nobody will care" is not consent. An unlit, unsecured lot also fails on security grounds.

Terminal yard - yes, if you can get in. Parking on the shipper's, consignee's or carrier's own secured premises is the textbook acceptable location. The gate-code problem is an administrative obstacle, not a legal one: call the terminal manager, the on-call supervisor, or the guard company and get the gate opened. That call is your job before you consider anything else.

Fallback: a company-approved secure lot or truck stop where the vehicle can be left attended or behind a fence with lighting, gates and, ideally, cameras. Call dispatch and get the location approved and recorded. Do not simply invent one at 5 p.m. on a Friday.

Attended means a qualified person is present with the vehicle, has it in view, and is physically able to move it or take action - not asleep in a sleeper berth 200 feet away, not in the shower, not in the restaurant. If the vehicle must be left unattended, it has to be in a location approved for that purpose: on shipper/consignee premises, in a secured lot, or another designated safe location. "I was only gone twenty minutes" is not a defense.

Before leaving the tank:

• All internal valves and the emergency shutoff closed; the PTO disengaged; the pump off.
• Dome covers and hatches dogged down; bottom-loading adaptor caps and API connections capped, with gaskets in place.
• No drips, no gasoline odor, no weeping at flanges or the discharge piping. If you smell product, stop and find it - a tanker that leaks while parked becomes an incident with your name on the report.
• Placards present, legible and securely attached on all four sides. The peeling rear placard must be replaced, not taped; a placard with missing text is a defective placard.
• Cab and cargo doors locked, and the keys with you.

Walking away from a placarded gasoline tank with a curling placard and an unverified valve is how a parking decision becomes a hazmat report.

No. The vehicle holds 2,100 gallons of gasoline and is placarded, so it is a hazardous materials vehicle requiring a Hazmat endorsement, and a cargo tank of that capacity requires the tank vehicle endorsement. Both must be current and both must be on the license of the person actually driving, for any distance on a public road - 11 miles and 11 feet are the same legally.

The driver must hold the correct commercial license class, the tank (N) endorsement for the cargo tank, and the Hazmat (H) endorsement for the placarded load - many drivers carry the combined X endorsement, which covers both. The Hazmat endorsement rests on a TSA security threat assessment that must be valid; once it lapses, the endorsement is not valid and the driver cannot legally operate a placarded vehicle. "He's licensed, it's just the threat assessment" is not a minor paperwork issue.

Practical resolution: you hold the endorsements and the hours, so you make the delivery, or dispatch sends a qualified driver, or the truck sits until one arrives. Do not let an unqualified driver reposition the load to "get it out of the way," and do not ride along thinking your presence cures it - the person at the wheel must be the qualified one.