Our Subscribers
Spill Center subscribers range from the largest truckload, LTL and private fleets, to small fleets, chemical, environmental and insurance companies, and truck leasing companies.
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Thomas Moses
President,
Spill Center
Tom Moses is an environmental attorney, former U.S. EPA toxicologist and president of Spill Center®, which he founded in 1990 as a 24/7 nationwide resource for companies at risk from hazardous materials releases. | |
Welcome
to Spill Center Update, the information service focusing on hazmat
transportation safety, risk avoidance and cost containment.
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Spill Costs Cut by $453,509
Accidents involving commercial vehicles have great potential
for making headlines and tarnishing carriers' reputations. When they involve
spills of hazmat or diesel fuel, they can also mean big cleanup bills for the
spill generator, even fines for not complying with regulatory reporting. But
when spills requiring cleanup are properly managed, the costs can be kept to a
minimum and the potential for environmental liability can be limited.
Here's an example of a spill managed by Spill Center that
produced significant savings. It involved 85 drums of hazardous waste that
caught on fire after a collision between two tractor trailers. A large quantity
of the waste was discharged into the soil. Luckily, the carrier whose truck
released the waste is a Spill Center client. They contacted us after the
accident and requested that we coordinate with the cleanup contractor at the
scene and manage the incident.
We found out immediately that the contractor had classified
the soil as the type of hazardous waste which required pretreatment prior to
disposal through incineration - a costly process. Before committing to that, we
asked that the contaminated soil be sampled again to determine if it could be
re-classified for disposal. Additional sampling showed that the soil could be
disposed of locally, bringing the cost down significantly. The difference in
the lower disposal rate per ton created a cost savings of $388,035 for our
client.
Savings Keep Mounting for
Client
On top of those savings, transportation for disposal was
reduced from $4,150 per load to $2,367 per load because the soil could be
brought to a closer facility. Finally, upon review of the cleanup contractor
invoicing, we noticed that a fuel surcharge was applied across the entire costs
of the initial invoice. Additional negotiations reduced this amount as well, for
a total cost savings of $453,509 for the client.
It was a case of knowing what questions to ask and knowing
the environmental regulations of that particular jurisdiction. It is just one
example of how the expertise and experience of Spill Center's staff of
environmental, technical and legal specialists help our clients reduce the
costs of spills. We have been assessing and managing environmental spills for
more than 20 years. We provide a menu of services for clients, including
incident reporting, contractor referrals and coordination, invoice auditing and
environmental claims management.
We have comprehensive information on more than 3,000 cleanup
contractors who are qualified to remediate environmental spills and dispose of
the waste. Clients select the contractor they prefer to use. Spill Center
receives no compensation from contractors. For incident reporting, we maintain
current listings of nearly 30,000 federal, state and local jurisdictions
requiring incident reports after spills. No Spill Center client has ever paid a
fine or penalty for failing to comply with reporting regulations when they
contacted us after a spill.
We even offer advice to clients on crisis communications
planning and openness with the press to maintain their good reputation after a
spill involving their vehicles. You can download the paper I wrote on the
subject at no charge (click on the link at left) The paper is called: "Dealing
With the Media During a Spill Emergency."
Become a Spill Center
Subscriber
To find out more about Spill Center services and how to
become a client, I'd be happy to talk with you. Call me directly at 978-568-1922, x222. Email me at tmoses@spillcenter.com.
Or visit the Spill Center website, www.spillcenter.com,
where you can enroll online as a client, complete a custom Spill Contingency
Plan or find out lots more about our services and benefits to clients.
Sincerely,
Tom Moses
President
Spill Center
22 Kane Industrial Drive
Hudson, Massachusetts 01749 |
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