It’s the holiday season, so naturally it’s time for a holiday post. And this time we’re doing something different.

We’ve done holiday gift guides. We’ve also done Valentine’s Day, Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day, Independence Day and, of course, Halloween. But as far as we know, no one’s ever done a Hanukkah-themed post about Dangerous Goods transport. So here we are with another industry innovation for Labelmaster!

But first …

A super-quick recap of the Hanukkah origin story

According to legend, Jews in the land that’s currently Israel rose up against their Syrian oppressors and drove them out of Jerusalem. When they rededicated their desecrated Temple, they only had enough oil to light the lamps for one night—or so they thought.

By some miracle, the lamps remained burning for eight nights. That’s why the eight nights of Hanukkah are celebrated today.

And that’s why we’re highlighting eight minor miracles to celebrate the first-ever hazmat Hanukkah.

Eight minor hazmat miracles

1. Harmonization. While by no means universal, Dangerous Goods shippers in North America can, for the most part, rely on fairly familiar regulations in Europe. It’s pretty amazing when governing bodies on different continents can smooth over their differences, especially when you consider the patchwork of rules South American shippers have to deal with.
2. Dangerous Goods software. According to our annual Dangerous Goods Confidence Outlook survey, a surprising number of hazmat operations still use manual processes to validate and document shipments. But why? Our DGIS software makes hazmat shipping as fast and easy as non-regulated shipping, and if that’s not a miracle we don’t know what is.
3. Labels and placards that handle extreme conditions. If you’ve ever wasted hours preparing drums for labels … or had your placards fade after long trips in the blazing Southwest sun … or had to replace labels that fell off in a humid warehouse … you can thank the heavens for our new extreme conditions labels and placards.
4. Simple packaging that mitigates thermal runaway. When a 1,200-degree lithium battery fire doesn’t escape the package and doesn’t even damage the other batteries in the package, is it a miracle? Not really—it’s just our simple, lightweight, super-advanced Obexion lithium battery packaging.
5. Dangerous Goods expertise a phone call or email away. The 49 CFR is 1,300 pages long. The IATA DGR? More than 1,000. Answers to your hazmat shipping questions can be hard to find—but you can contact our Regs Team anytime by calling 800.621.5808 (or emailing mailto:regs@labelmaster.com). Hang up and say “Hallelujah!”
6. Compliant reverse logistics. Doing anything backwards is challenging. (Try reciting the alphabet starting with Z.) Making sure returns of lithium batteries and battery devices are just as compliant as the original, outbound shipment? That requires planning and expertise that borders on the miraculous.
7. The Dangerous Goods Symposium. Our annual three-day smorgasbord of regulatory updates, expert panels, vigorous networking and presentations from industry leaders brings long-timers and first-timers to Chicago every fall. You’ll learn more, connect more and very likely eat more than you ever thought possible. Oh, and it doesn’t take a miracle to reserve your spot.
8. Everyday hazmat heroes like you. When we consider the complexity of Dangerous Goods regulations, the hazards involved in hazmat transport and the 1.4 million DG shipments every day, we sometimes think it’s a miracle that nearly all those shipments are made safely and compliantly. But it’s no miracle—you people are just that good.

Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, all of the above or none of the above, everyone at Labelmaster wishes you and yours the warmest of holidays and the happiest of New Years.

See you in 2020!

Make sure your shipments are safe and in complete compliance with a full line of solutions from Labelmaster—a full-service provider of goods and services for hazardous materials and Dangerous Goods professionals, shippers, transport operators and EH&S providers.