What are Hazardous Materials?
A hazardous material is a substance that poses an unreasonable risk to the safety, health, and property during commercial transportation. Hazardous materials are also referred to as HAZMATs if deemed dangerous by the Federal hazardous materials transportation law under section 5103. This law includes hazardous wastes, elevated temperature materials, marine pollutants, and the like.
Why is It Important to Ship Hazardous Materials Safely?
Shipping hazardous materials involve risks as they can cause serious damage to the environment or the property if shipped improperly. Hence, it becomes important to ship hazardous materials with the utmost care.
Companies need to ensure that they ship the products in suitable packaging depending upon the hazardous material classification. They can also conduct hazardous material training to ensure employee safety. These trainings provide function-specific training that includes how to load and unload hazardous materials, how to handle them and operate vehicles to transport such materials.
How to Ship Hazardous Materials
Shipping HAZMAT can be taxing, with severe consequences for non-compliance. To ship any hazardous material, you need to follow the steps given below:-
- Classify the material in a product SDS (Safety Data Sheet) as per legal requirements
- Only choose the best carriers who are DOT approved
- Choose proper packaging. For instance, hazardous liquids are best stored in drums
- Carefully label and mark your package. Make sure it contains the HAZMAT class, ID number, net weight, and more.
- Prepare all requested documents and shipping papers.
- Make sure all additional requirements of shipping the HAZMAT are met.
Use Case of Shipping Hazardous Materials
For instance, if a beauty company requires the assistance of a courier company to ship nail polish that falls under the Class 3 HAZMAT category, as a provider, you will need to be trained and certified as per the rules of the authority.