Shipping HAZMAT Materials, How Serious Is It?
Shipping hazardous materials is no joke and must be taken seriously at all times. As long as proper regulations are maintained and abided by, no one should be harmed by shipping hazardous materials from one location to another. It is only when people get careless and start to underestimate the real risk of hazardous materials that things can get dangerous. We will quickly examine some of the reasons why taking extra caution when shipping hazardous materials is a must-do.
Why Proper HAZMAT Shipping Matters
More than 10,000 Hazmat shipments were improperly handled in the year 2020. Every Hazmat shipment that is not handled properly can cause a delay of up to two weeks and having that shipment arrive where it needs to go. With supply chains already strained to the max, no one can afford to have extra delays on top of their already lengthy shipping times.
What Is Considered HAZMAT Shipping?
Any type of shipment that can pose a significant risk to your health, safety, or property is considered to be a Hazmat shipment. There are different categories of hazmat materials, but any material that can potentially cause harm to any one of these is Hazmat. Transportation companies are well aware that they need to transport hazmat equipment across the country to keep business running, but that doesn’t mean that they can ignore common-sense safety precautions to get things done. The United States Postal Service estimates that about 20% of all shipments moving to the United States contain hazmat materials.
Finding Transport Information in the SDS
The best way to discover if there is Hazmat material on board the shipment that you are moving is to check the SDS label. This stands for the Safety Data Sheet that is required to ship with all materials moving about the country. The Safety Data Sheet is an incredibly important document that details exactly what is on board any given shipment at a time. You will find the shipping instructions along with the relevant information about the type of material moving in that shipment. If there are hazardous materials, this SDS needs to have specific information detailing what kind of hazard those materials pose as well as any specific ways that they need to be shipped and or packaged.
When packaging the material for shipping, you should also look for the labels that detail information about the Hazmat material that is on board. You want to make sure that you properly package the material that is being sent off for shipment. You don’t want to put anyone at risk because you didn’t take the necessary time to ensure that a hazardous material package was properly secured.
A lot can go wrong when Hazmat materials are in play, but as long as you take the time necessary to make sure you secure the materials properly and don’t let anything slip through the cracks, you should be in great shape.
Don’t take chances, and always remember that there are lots of hazardous materials that move through the country every day. If those companies can get it right, then so can you.
Categorised in: Hazmat Shipping