Tips for Safer Hazmat Transportation

There are a lot of compliance standards to be aware of when shipping hazardous materials (hazmat). You must take great efforts to plan out your hazmat shipping to ensure it meets all of these safety standards and regulations and to prevent any incidents from occurring that could result in massive liability issues for your company.

Here are some tips to ensure safer hazmat transportation in North Charleston, SC.

Training for handling with care

Any organizations that wish to transport hazardous materials of any type must ensure their employees are fully educated and trained in all the necessary processes and safety protocols. Those processes and systems themselves should also be thoroughly reviewed to ensure they meet national compliance standards.

You can’t just box up hazmat and ship it off while hoping for the best. Everyone who’s involved in the journey with hazmat shipping in North Charleston, SC, from truck drivers and rail operators to the people doing the packaging and handling, needs to go through thorough training processes to ensure safety along the entirety of the journey.

Regulation awareness

Companies must be well-versed in all of the rules associated with transporting hazardous materials. Various agencies may set some of their own rules depending on the material being shipped. For example, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) outlines responsibilities shippers must abide by to be in compliance with all regulations, including defining “hazardous materials” and the information that must be included with each shipment.

FMCSA information standards for each shipment include the following:

• Name: The shipping name will typically be the name of the chemical or hazardous material being shipped.
• Class: Every type of hazmat in North Charleston, SC will fall under one of nine hazard classes. This class must be included on the shipping information to ensure safety.
• ID number: The Hazardous Materials Table in FMCSA rules and regulations has information about identification numbers for specific types of materials. This ID must be included in shipments.
• Mass and volume: You must include information about the total quantity of hazardous material being shipped with the proper unit of measurement.
• Packing group: Different packing groups exist to identify the level of danger associated with the shipment. Group I indicates great danger, group II indicates moderate danger and group III indicates minor danger. Certain types of materials will not have assigned packing groups.
• Phone number: Include a phone number people can call if issues arise while the material is being transported. The number should be monitored around the clock by an individual or team of individuals who have access to emergency response information and who are knowledgeable of the material being shipped.
• Other information: Any additional descriptive information that might be helpful should be included on shipping information, including special permits, poison or toxicity notices or other handling instructions.

Interested in learning more about how you can safely ship your hazardous materials to your desired destination? Contact All Points Transport, a South Carolina shipping and logistics company, today to learn more about our services and capabilities, specifically with regard to hazmat shipping.

Categorised in: Hazmat Shipping