Thanks for all your responses! Been over in New York fighting this blizzard, havent had a lot of time to be on the internet. burr!!!!

 

I know hauling swinging beef can be dangerous. Back in the spring of 1985 near where I used to live a driver was coming down off a mountain west of town with a load of swinging beef headed to the meat processing plant. He took a curve on the downhill side a bit too fast and his load shifted causing his rig to go off the side of the highway and overturn, killing him.

 

I believe in 1989 they changed the securement mandates of hanging-beef. I know when I pulled it in in 2004 it had to be chained to the floor as well, thus requiring the trailer to be sterilized after each run. I remember it taking a good 3hrs for them to this. They would run the truck into an "auto-clave" machine wheich got up to 175* then they steamed the inside with 400* water, then they sealed the trailer and placed a USDA tag and lock on it which had to be removed at the shipper. Then, once loaded, they had a USDA inspector on-site and he would verify it, seal the trailer and give you the paperwork with a stamped seal.

Load's didn't pay me that well to waste all my time so i quit doing it.

 

We handle an account that moves 450,000 lbs a week of calves to CA. There is no securement rquirement of "chaining" to the floor. The only cleaning requirement is a steam wash before loading.