Bensalem, PA Noise from Specific Sources: Delivery Truck Noise (2026)

Section 149-4(b) of the Bensalem Township Noise Ordinance (Ord. No. 98-18, Art. IV, adopted June 23, 1998) makes it unlawful for anyone to operate the engine of a standing motor vehicle with a manufacturer's gross vehicle weight over 10,000 pounds for more than ten minutes between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. of the following day, prevailing time. The provision reaches the tractor-trailers and box trucks that make overnight deliveries along the Street Road and Route 1 commercial corridors and near warehouses close to Neshaminy Creek and the Delaware River, where an idling diesel engine outside a loading dock is exactly the kind of noise the chapter targets.

The restriction sits alongside the chapter's general lot-line sound ceiling in Section 149-3 and its construction-equipment curfew in Section 149-4(a), all part of the same 1998 ordinance meant to protect residents near commercial and industrial zoned property from overnight mechanical noise. The Noise Control Officer created by Section 149-5 may inspect a site and take A.N.S.I.-certified readings, entering with the owner's consent or an administrative warrant from District Court if consent is refused. Section 149-6 makes a violation a summary offense, fined up to $1,000.00 per violation, with each day of continued idling treated as a separate offense, and it also lets the Township abate the idling as a public nuisance and collect its abatement costs from the truck's operator or the receiving business.