Vermilion Parish, LA Noise from Specific Sources: Delivery Truck Noise (2026)

The Police Jury's noise control article, Chapter 26 Article III, singles out one truck noise source in § 26-68(3): the operation of any commercial truck with refrigeration units. That covers reefer trucks and trailers idling their cooling units at a store, plant or parked overnight. The rule is a distance and hours test. The unit cannot be operated within 250 feet of any residential property between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. on weekdays, or between 10:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. on weekends. Section 26-63 defines the weekend as beginning on Friday at 6:00 p.m. and ending on the following Sunday at 8:00 p.m.

The subsection applies notwithstanding §§ 26-65 and 26-67, as the lead-in to § 26-68 says, so the general exceptions in the article do not excuse a running refrigeration unit. Two related provisions matter to a fleet operator. First, § 26-65(d) reduces the Table I sound limits by five dB(A) for a mechanical source with a steady tonal quality, a whine, hum or buzz, and names refrigeration units among such sources. Second, § 26-67(9) exempts the sound from the locomotion of properly muffled motor vehicles on a public right-of-way, so a truck driving past is treated differently from a truck parked with its unit running. "Properly muffled" means the use of a device to minimize the emission of sound rather than maximize it. Section 26-67(8) exempts surface carriers engaged in commerce by railroad, exclusive of loading and unloading, and § 26-67(11) exempts collection of residential refuse and residential recyclables.

The article applies to sound originating from, or received by, property in the unincorporated areas of the parish, so a dock inside Abbeville, Kaplan or another municipality is outside it.