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Ok now you have done the right things, you have been smart enough to know that you need some special equipment to SAFELY to the recovery that involves Hazardous Materials, and you know that the personal safety equipment is not cheap when you are considering the risk to your health. Now how do you go about cleaning up any equipment that might be contaminated with the spilled product.
If you think that all you have to do is to just hose off the truck, you are in trouble. In some cases, with some substances, just soap and water will work. But then there is some stuff that you have to take extra care and time to decontaminate. Even worse is some of the real nasty Hazardous Materials, you sometimes have to dispose of the contaminated materials, by shipping them off to be buried, or burned.

Now as a simple look at some things that might have to be decontaminated, lets start with you. I know that we all think that we are superman, but we are not. Repeated exposure to gasoline ( the benzine and lead in it )and diesel can cause cancer. So you do not want to swim in it, or wear any clothing that is soaked in it. For any clothing that is soaked, remove it as soon as possible, and put it in a bag. You can wash it later, or if it is really in bad shape, Dispose it. Now remember if you have a uniform service, and you just take it back to throw in the laundry basket, what does it do till it gets picked up. The gas vapors are still there, and the health risk being spread to other clothes, if it is not bagged. You might put a note on the bag also, so that the uniform service knows what is wrong with the clothes. You don't want to risk their employees also to the health risks. This is because of a law known as the " Right to know " law. Which in a nut shell says that " every employee has a right to know what hazardous materials they might be exposed to in their workplaces ".

Now as for gloves, I recommend that anytime you are faced with a hazardous materials recovery ( spilled gas, diesel, acids, and the like ), JUST THROW THEM AWAY. You do not want to use them again. If the gloves become gas soaked, and then they dry, the next time that you get them wet, the gasoline comes back. When I was taking the Hazardous Materials courses, we were told of a firefighter that worked a car wreck, and he had to help plug a leaking gas tank. His gloves became soaked in the gas. He then put them away, and used a different pair. Awhile later, he went to a fire, and in the process, used the gas soaked gloves, and they got wet. You can figure out that the had his hands badly burned because of that. So this should be a reminder that you need to bag them and then dispose of them properly. You can use the thin latex gloves as inner liners for your other gloves so that you can at least keep your hands clean.

Ok truck equipment is a little bit different. Some of it you can decontaminate, and some of it, you want to dispose of. Chains you can wash with soap and water, or a mix of bleach and water. But if they were exposed to any acids, I might consider replacing them right away, because the chemical action will be destroying them the moment that you make contact with the substance. Recovery straps are the same way, any acids, throw them away. Now you might be looking at what I just said and are telling me that I am nuts. Well I might be, that stuff costs lots of money, but do you want to have a chain or strap let go in a recovery or in tow. You can add materials used, that get contaminated to your towing and recovery bill, along with any personal protective clothing that is disposed of .
Every insurance company is going to see that you are educated, and that you respect the environment. And believe me, nowadays that is a major factor with the insurance companies. After all you need special insurance to work or transport hazardous materials.

Ok you have worked the accident and you were aware of what you have got contaminated. You head back to the shop and now it is time to clean up your truck and equipment. First of all, you should get new gloves, the kind like doctors use, which work real good. Lay out all the equipment that you used, and sort it out as to contaminated or not. Wrenches and other tools most likely will not be bad, they might be dirty, and greasy, so you need to clean them up, and then put them in their tool boxes. Wood blocks, well they will have been on the ground in the spilled product. Get rid of them !!!. Chains will have to be visually inspected for signs of damage ( stretched links, or signs of acid damage ). You can tell this by discoloration. The same goes for your recovery straps, look them over real good. Air cushions, well they need to be looked at real close. They are a very expensive piece of equipment that you do want to take care of.
        Don't forget that you need to look at your cables also, they may have been in contact with the spilled product. Now hopefully you have your cables in good shape, and they are greased so that they do not rust. This will help prevent you from having serious problems for a while, but you will need to wash off the cables. And this means all the way to the end on the drum. Because if you just wash off the first layer, the product will work its way to the very end of the cable. It may go three or more layers down, and you don't want to have a problem next time you pull all your cable out.

Now washing the truck, you need to start at the top and work your way down. Drag the bucket and some more soap, and the hose to the back of the truck and climb up there. Don't depend on a long handled brush from the ground, the only way that you can see if you get everything is to be up there. The reason is if you have to climb back up on something that you have washed, from a dirty area you have just re-contaminated the area again. Work your way to the bottom of the truck, and then don't forget to clean the underside of the truck. A pressure washer that puts out a soap mix is real good, because you can regulate how much mix there is . You can also mix the bleach and water together to clean the underside of the truck. Now this should be the last area that you wash. But before you move the truck, don't forget to wash off the area that you are parked on. It would not make sense to walk though standing water, that is contaminated and the get it back on the truck, and too allow it to get back on the underside of the truck. Also don't forget that EPA has restrictions now on how you can get rid or dirty wash water, on your equipment wash racks. So this is another factor in figuring out how you are going to decontaminate your equipment.

Now on to cleaning up yourself. Remove the gloves, and put them into a garbage bag, and any other items that you used should go into it also, if they are real bad, or are disposable. Now I know that there are disposable coveralls, on the market through safety supply houses, and that most rain gear is cheap enough to be thrown away. I think that it would be a cheap investment to just throw them away when you have used them, and are in doubt about the condition of them. After all, it is your health that we are talking about.

Now if you EVER happen to get involved in the recovery of a radioactive load, and they run the ranges of papers, dirt, metals, and the like, BE SURE to talk to the person that is in charge of the accident. In a accident like this you will find a Department of Energy person, or some other special agency that will help you with anything that you need. This is one area where you could lose your recovery truck, because of a mistake.
My father used to sell and rent power company equipment, and he dealt with the people at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State. He told me about a piece of construction equipment that punched a barrel or cask, which contained radioactive waste. It seemed that they were working on burying the barrels, and the backhoe was spreading the dirt over the drums. They ended up burying the backhoe also, because they could not decontaminate it.
Could you stand to see your tow truck buried because of a mistake !!! So you need to pay attention to the things that are around you, when you are doing a recovery. It might just help keep you healthy.

I do not think that we as a industry want to lose anyone to a Hazardous Materials accident, because of the careless attitude that we are superman. Nobody is indestructible. We lose to many people to auto accidents and heart attacks in this business to try the superman approach to Hazardous Materials spills.