NAR emphasizes safety at every turn.  As part of the safety precautions, local volunteer firefighters and EMTs  from the Beulah Fire Protection and Ambulance District were on site all weekend.  I took the opportunity to go over to their rig and ask a few questions about the district and the types of technology the volunteers are using.

In the course of that conversation, Chief Bryan Ware, mentioned that he definitely uses his iPhone for accessing the web.  But he finds that some webpages, such as the National Weather Service zone forecasts, take an awful lot of clicks to get to.  He suggested we might want to build an app for that.  But, as I got thinking about it on the drive home, I realized there is already a solution:  homepage links.  They look and act a lot like apps but you can create them for yourself for any webpage you want to access on a regular basis.

Bret was kind enough to do the detailed research on how to create these links for zone forecasts — instructions below.  But there’s no magic to the NWS site; you can use this technique for any web page you access frequently.

iPad & iPhone instructions
Android device instructions

Apple Devices (iOS) – iPad, iPhone

1. On your device’s Internet browser (Safari), navigate to the National Weather Service’s “Fire Weather Forecast Products” page. (If on your iPad or iPhone now, simply click this link to open it in a new tab.) Or access the fire weather forecast in your usual manner.

2. Choose the appropriate station to bring up the zone forecasts for that station.

3. To save a web shortcut, find the icon that looks like a rectangle with an arrow. On iPad, it is on the top by the address bar, and on iPhone it is at the bottom. Clicking this icon will bring up various options. The one you are looking for is “Add to Home Screen.”

4. Safari will prompt you to name the shortcut. Name it something that makes sense for your needs, like Fire Weather: [Name of Station] or Fire Weather: [Zone].

5. To access the page in the future, all you need to do is click the icon on the home screen! If you need to monitor more than one zone, this is a great method to keep several zones at hand. Simply repeat the steps above for each different weather station or zone you want to follow.

Android Devices

1. Use your mobile Internet browser to access the National Weather Service’s Fire Weather Forecast Products page. If you are on your mobile device now, simply click this link. If you access your fire weather forecast differently, feel free to substitute whatever web page you need.

2. Select the appropriate weather station for your zone(s).

3. While viewing the webpage select the “Bookmarks” button at the bottom of your screen (top row, center).

4. In the bookmarks menu tap the top left square displaying the current page and which says “Add.”

5. You will be prompted to name your bookmark. Select a name that makes sense to you such as Fire Weather–[Location] or Fire Weather–[Zone].

6. Return to your home screen. Find an open spot for a new icon and tap and hold. The “Add to Home Screen” menu will show up. Select “Shortcuts.”

7. Then select “Bookmark.” This will return you to your book mark menu where you should select the page you wish to add to the desktop.

8. The weather page will show up as an icon on your home screen. Now it is just one click away. Repeat these steps if you wish to add an icon for another zone or reporting center.

The post Easy Fire Weather on Phone or Tablet, A How-To appeared first on Hazardous Materials Placard Apps.

At the same time we have made a correction to Table 3 of the Kindle version, fixing the text describing windspeed ranges. If you own the Kindle version and did not receive an update notification from Amazon, you may visit the “Manage your Kindle” section in “Your Account” to resend the ebook to your device.

Revision History:
- Version 1.0 — Initial release of Kindle version
- Version 1.1 — Added missing sections: Intro to Green Tables and the How To section for each table
- Version 1.2 — Incorporated DOT and other corrections
- Version 2.0 — Made many formatting improvements, including the consolidation of the unnumbered placards pages into one section, making it more intuitive and more similar to the physical ERG.
- Version 2.1 — Initial release of the epub (Nook) version. Corrected the windspeed labels in Table 3.

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Enter your email address to download the Enhanced Emergency Response Guidebook 2012 PDF*

In developing our ebook editions of the Emergency Response Guidebook, we’ve spent a lot of time working with the official ERG pdf that is downloadable from PHMSA. While we have taken the time to integrate the Department of Transportation’s corrections list into our ebooks, we have wondered why the ERG 2012 pdf from PHMSA doesn’t include them, at least as an appendix. So we decided to combine the contents of the official ERG2012 with the official corrections list and offer the result as a complementary download.

Since that much was easy enough to accomplish, we decided to also include an active table of contents like the one employed in our Kindle and epub editions, so that a person can click on a section title and go right to it rather than scrolling down page-by-page through the hefty volume hoping and praying to land on the page you’re looking for. It doesn’t have all of the features of our ebooks, but as far as I know this is the only pdf version of the Guidebook to include the corrections list and a hyperlinked table of contents.

*We respect your privacy and will never sell or share your information with a third party. See our privacy policy. You may also receive occasional news and promotional offers by email regarding Roadware products. You can unsubscribe at any time.

The post ERG 2012 PDF: Free Enhanced Version appeared first on Hazardous Materials Placard Apps.

If you have already purchased the previous edition and you did not receive a notification from Amazon with the option of updating your copy, you may go to the “Manage Your Kindle” section of your Amazon account page to find the option to update.

Here is a list of specific changes for this version:

• Consolidated the three unnumbered placard sections (placards without UN numbers, rail cars, and road trailers) into a single section with improved navigation links. We also made it easier to get to the appropriate guide once the correct image is selected.
• Fixed a formatting issue with the Blue section where some entries were in a different order than others.
• Improved the Table 2 footer formatting and added links from the Table 2 gas formulae direct to the footer translations.
• Changed the initial index to the Blue Pages to take up less space.
• Made lot of small technical corrections to improve the ebook generation process and pave the way for the epub and French/Spanish editions, coming soon!

The post Edition 2.0 of the ERG 2012 Released on Kindle appeared first on Hazardous Materials Placard Apps.

If you have already purchased the previous edition and you did not receive a notification from Amazon with the option of updating your copy, you may go to the “Manage Your Kindle” section of your Amazon account page to find the option to update.

Here is a list of specific changes for version 1.2. (Official errata are marked PHMSA.)

The post New Edition of our ERG 2012: Quick Lookup for Kindle Released appeared first on Hazardous Materials Placard Apps.

Seems legit.

We’ve received a question from a driver who had lost not one but two loads recently due to improper hazmat labeling by the shipper. He asked whether we might be interested in developing a mobile solution for classifying hazardous materials and printing regulation labels on the spot.

We’re still working through that request. It’s a big leap from our quick reference versions of the ERG2012 for Android and for Kindle to building a tool for classifying and labeling shipments, or even just a tool for letting someone assemble and print a placard image from a template and the right UN number.

But, while we’ve been looking into the issue, we’ve done some research and found a few tools out there already that might help a driver help his shipper get the labeling right. As long as we’ve done that much work, we figure we might as well share it. The only thing we’d ask is that, if you have personal experience with one of the tools we mention, let us and your fellow drivers know how it worked for you by leaving a comment below.

First of all, let’s get a few things straight. (And, drivers, do let us know with a comment if you think we are wrong about any of this.)

Truckers depend on shippers to properly classify and label a shipment according to the appropriate DOT regulations. It’s the shipper’s job to identify and affix the right hazmat label(s). But, out on the road, the driver is responsible for the cargo, including that the cargo is correctly labeled. So it’s the driver’s job to double-check the manifest and the shipper’s label choices and make sure the labeling is correct before accepting the load.

But even if a driver (or his safety department) spots a problem and determines a load is improperly classified, then what? The driver may be forced to reject the load altogether unless the shipper is able to regenerate the manifest or can re-label and re-placard the shipment on the spot.

Here’s what we found in online resources for printing labels and placards. We aren’t associated with any of these solutions and we haven’t tried them out ourselves. But you might want to take a quick look in case you find yourself in a hazmat jam with a shipper anytime soon.

1. The State of Washington Department of Ecology has a page loaded with premade, free and printable labels for hazardous wastes and other materials. The labels are available in various formats, including Word, Adobe pdf, and jpeg. Some are available in Spanish as well as English. The hazard class labels are linked to their appropriate DOT regulation for reference.

2. Programmer Ian Albert offers placards and labels for free download in pdf and image formats, pre-sized to 10.8″ for placards and 3.9″ for labels.

3. Placard Wizard is web-based software for generating and printing placards with the intention of eliminating the need to stock an inventory of placards. It “interprets the 49 CFR and gives a placard solution based on the class, weight and the UN number loaded.” Registration is required for free (perhaps trial) use. They also offer a placard-specific printer for use with this software.

If you are a driver or carrier, please be encouraged to join in the discussion by commenting below, or to contact us through our contact page in order to let us know what you would like to see in terms of hazmat resources.

*Image stock “Highway 2, Calgary” by D’Arcy Norman. CC2.0 Share-Remix-Attribution.
*Image stock “Cardboard Blank” by gbondurant.

The post Truckers, Ever Lose a Hazmat Load Due to Shipper Error? appeared first on Hazardous Materials Placard Apps.

The post DOT Placards Updated appeared first on Hazardous Materials Placard Apps.

Thanks go to Aaron for spotting the problem and bringing it to my attention. And to Kim for producing the missing content in record time but with her usual attention to detail.

I spent a couple of hours this morning regenerating the ebook and, as always, tweaking and re-tweaking the formatting to get things looking just right.  A few minutes ago I hit the Submit button from the Kindle admin page.  Version 1.1 will be available for download within a day or so.  (Amazon says 48 hours but I’ve never seen it take that long myself.)

The post ERG2012 Kindle Update — Version 1.1 appeared first on Hazardous Materials Placard Apps.

Based on the newly updated 2102 Emergency Response Guidebook recently published jointly by the transportation departments of the US, Canada, and Mexico, our ebook provides extensive cross-linking to make it easy to not only look up the detailed Guide for each material but also get quickly to the correct entries for that material in the Green Table 1, 2, and 3 sections.

We also included all the how-to and background information of the print/pdf version so the ebook can be used both for emergency response and for reference.

Note that the ebook makes extensive use of the same color coding as the print edition.  It will work well on the Kindle Fire and in any of the free Kindle Reading apps available for just about any smartphone, tablet, or laptop.

The post ERG2012: Quick Lookup Kindle Edition appeared first on Hazardous Materials Placard Apps.

As always, if you like the app, please leave a comment in the marketplace.  If you have questions or complaints, PLEASE email us at support@sherprog.com — we want these products to work well for you.

The post Improved guide display for DOT Placards appeared first on Hazardous Materials Placard Apps.