(a) Information that must be carried in the vehicle. During transportation, the following must be maintained in each commercial motor vehicle that transports a hazardous material listed in §385.403 and must be made available to an authorized official of a Federal, State, or local government agency upon request.

(1) A copy of the safety permit or another document showing the permit number, provided that document clearly indicates the number is the FMCSA Safety Permit number;

(2) A written route plan that meets the requirements of §397.101 of this chapter for highway route-controlled Class 7 (radioactive) materials or §397.67 of this chapter for Division 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 (explosive) materials; and

(3) The telephone number, including area code or country code, of an employee of the motor carrier or representative of the motor carrier who is familiar with the routing of the permitted material. The motor carrier employee or representative must be able to verify that the shipment is within the general area for the expected route for the permitted material. The telephone number, when called, must be answered directly by the motor carrier or its representative at all times while the permitted material is in transportation including storage incidental to transportation. Answering machines are not sufficient to meet this requirement.

(b) Inspection of vehicle transporting Class 7 (radioactive) materials. Before a motor carrier may transport a highway route controlled quantity of a Class 7 (radioactive) material, the motor carrier must have a pre-trip inspection performed on each motor vehicle to be used to transport a highway route controlled quantity of a Class 7 (radioactive) material, in accordance with the requirements of the “North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria and Level VI Inspection Procedures and Out-of-Service Criteria for Commercial Highway Vehicles Transporting Transuranics and Highway Route Controlled Quantities of Radioactive Materials as defined in 49 CFR Part 173.403”, (incorporated by reference, see §385.4).

(c) Additional requirements. A motor carrier transporting hazardous materials requiring a permit under this part must also meet the following requirements:

(1) The operator of a motor vehicle used to transport a hazardous material listed in §385.403 must follow the communications plan required in §385.407(b)(2) to make contact with the carrier at the beginning and end of each duty tour, and at the pickup and delivery of each permitted load. Contact may be by telephone, radio or via an electronic tracking or monitoring system. The motor carrier or driver must maintain a record of communications for 6 months after the initial acceptance of a shipment of hazardous material for which a safety permit is required. The record of communications must contain the name of the driver, identification of the vehicle, permitted material(s) being transported, and the date, location, and time of each contact required under this section.

(2) The motor carrier should contact the Transportation Security Administration's Transportation Security Coordination Center (703-563-3236 or 703-563-3237) at any time the motor carrier suspects its shipment of a hazardous material listed in §385.403 is lost, stolen or otherwise unaccounted for.

[69 FR 39367, June 30, 2004, as amended at 72 FR 55701, Oct. 1, 2007; 77 FR 59826, Oct. 1, 2012; 84 FR 32326, July 8, 2019]