Dangerous Goods 101

Dear Import/Export Compliance Manager,

My company ships a lot of items which are ‘dangerous goods’.  Although this seems to be a major compliance issue, our logistics people are the ones who manage it.  Since you cover logistics, too, can you provide a compliance person’s explanation of dangerous goods?  I’d like to figure out whether I should trust that the logistics people know what they’re doing.

Explosive in Exeter

Dear Explosive,

Really, you should just buy the logistics people some Girl Scout cookies and be thankful you don’t deal with dangerous goods.

Just kidding…sort of.

So dangerous goods is simply the set of regulations (49 CFR 171-180 in the US) covering the packaging, labeling, declaring and emergency response for goods that may cause a problem for anyone handling the item in transit.  Say you’re shipping drinking water.  If your container leaks, no one’s going to get sick and it likely won’t cause a major safety issue like, say, causing a plane to catch fire.  Ship something like a bottle of bleach, however, and you need to make sure that it is packaged in such a way that any leak is contained, that the container is labeled so that a carrier employee, first responder or anyone has an idea of what is in the container, that you have a Declaration of Dangerous Goods for the items and that a 24/7 emergency response hotline can be called to get safety information about the product.  Ultimately, you’re trying to keep everyone involved in the transport process safe.  The worst-case scenario is an overturned truck with the cab on fire and the first responder not knowing what equipment is needed to safely go in and rescue the unconscious driver.

With import/export compliance, there are two basic things you need to do to start with products: 1) classify them and 2) determine what to do based on the classification.  Classification can be very tough, such as HTS Codes for apparel and ECCNs for encrypted items, but the data based off of the codes, such as duty rates or export license requirements, can be pretty simple.  For dangerous goods, it’s the reverse.  Classification is easy because the item should have a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) with the dangerous goods information in Section 14 (because the manufacturer or the technical people at your complany already did the hard work of determining the classification).  As an example, here’s an SDS for isopropyl alcohol: http://www.tsi.com/uploadedFiles/_Site_Root/Products/Literature/MSDS/1080546-MSDS-Isopropyl-Alcohol-TSI.pdf  

Now, you have your code gift-wrapped to you in the form of a UN number from the SDS, but now you have to do something with it (unless there is no UN#, in which case the item isn’t a dangerous good).  Here are some but not necessarily all of the things you have to figure out based on that UN#:

1.      What kind of box or outer container can it ship in?

2.      What ratings for humidity, shock and vibration does the container need?

3.      Which packing instruction in the regulations can or should you use?

4.      Is the item eligible for De Minimis, Excepted Quantity or Limited Quantity provisions to make the requirements a bit less onerous?

5.      If being placed in the same outer container with other dangerous goods, is that ok?

6.      What labels are needed on the box?

7.      What address, phone number or other information is needed to be written on the box?

8.      What if you have a bunch of different dangerous goods in one overpack?  Is that ok?

9.      Do you need a Shipper’s Declaration of Dangerous Goods?

10.   Is there a 24/7 phone number available and on the Shipper’s Declaration of Dangerous Goods such that an inspector from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, your customer or anyone else can call to get emergency information about the item?

11.   Are there any country-specific or carrier-specific limitations on your shipment of the dangerous goods?

In short, there is an awful lot of minutiae involved in ensuring the compliant shipment of dangerous goods.  But it is all for the purpose of keeping anyone handling or near the item safe from any mishap.  The Import/Export Compliance Manager’s opinion is that ensuring the proper shipment of lithium-ion batteries so they don’t catch fire during flight is a much weightier compliance job than many of the export compliance tasks done by import/export compliance departments. 

Now, should you trust that the Logistics Department knows what it is doing?  That is tough to say.  The Import/Export Compliance Manager’s opinion is that, on the whole, compliance-minded people are better at designing compliance programs than those for whom compliance is a secondary responsibility.  However, there are tons and tons of other areas of compliance at your company that you are not involved in: facilities compliance, human resources compliance, contracts compliance and environmental compliance, to name a few.  Do you really feel like, not knowing much about dangerous goods compliance, you want to try to check on the Logistics Department and possibly empire build?  If the Logistics Department overall seems competent, the Import/Export Compliance Manager recommends staying in your lane.  If you do have strong suspicions something is amiss, do some preliminary investigation yourself (after boning up a bit more on dangerous goods) or refer it to your company’s internal mechanisms like your management or, if necessary, the Legal Department or the compliance hotline (if you have one).  If you do happen one day to find dangerous goods under your own purview, you can show the career logistics people a slightly different perspective.  And see if you can the other compliance people to buy YOU the Girl Scout cookies.