When the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and International Air Transport Association (IATA) imposed new lithium battery air shipping restrictions April 1, 2016, many shippers whose products never cross US borders believed that the new rules didn’t apply to them. Because those restrictions have not been adopted into the U.S. Hazardous Materials Regulations (49 CFR),…
USDOT/PHMSA formalizes requirements for “Reverse Logistics”
In today’s edition of the US Federal Register, the United States Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a final rule under Docket # PHMSA-2011-0143 (HM-253), RIN 2137-AE82 under which the agency sets forth specific rules to regulate the transport of materials under the so-called “Reverse Logistics” principle. This function…
Addendum 4 and Supplement Addendum to the 2015-2016 ICAO Technical Instructions
2015-2016 ICAO TI Addendum 4: Doc 9284-2015-2016.ADD-4.en Supplement Addendum: Doc 9284SUP-ADDENDUM.en
FAA Reauthorization Legislation Focused on Lithium Batteries
Bob Richard and Neil McCulloch co-contributed to this article. When a US Senator proposes to spend tax dollars on a committee to “promote research and new standards for the safe manufacture, use or transportation of lithium batteries,” I can only sigh in frustration. This is exactly what was recently proposed by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.. …
DG Advisory Council tries to make sense of lithium battery provisions
Why would anyone choose to spend three days in Washington a few days after the city was shut down for the Storm of the Decade? That’s what 70 or so DG experts asked ourselves, before we got down to the serious business of the Dangerous Goods Advisory Council January quarterly meeting in Alexandria last week.…
ICAO Panel Moves to Ban Lithium Ion Battery Transport from Passenger Aircraft
ICAO’s Air Navigation Commission (ANC) has completed its review of the Dangerous Goods Panel’s 25th meeting and will be recommending to the Governing Council of ICAO that Lithium Ion batteries be prohibited from transport on passenger aircraft. The conclusion of the Commission was that the risks of these batteries in flight was currently “not adequately…
Federal Register publishes HM-233F revisions to the HMR
The United States Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) yesterday published the newest rulemaking under its HM-233 Docket family. This incorporates various aspects of previously issued Special Permits (SP’s) into the body of the regulations. Specials Permits are administrative actions that grant specific users permission to do something outside of…
IATA DGR Update: Everything you know about lithium battery shipping may change
Shippers are still coming to grips with the recent International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) addendum, which among other changes, established the first-ever state-of-charge limitation on air transport of lithium batteries. Then, on Saturday, January 16th, the International Air transport Association (IATA) released an addendum to 57th edition of the Dangerous Goods Regulations, commonly referred to as…
ICAO imposes first-ever charge limit on lithium battery shipments, effective April 1
ICAO has published its much anticipated addendum highlighting additional consignment conditions for the transport of lithium batteries. The ICAO Dangerous Goods Panel considered that these would significantly improve the already high-level of safety of these shipments and it would be prudent to have them in place as soon as possible. As a result, the ICAO addendum…
New Year, New Revisions to DG Regulations for IATA and IMO
As often occurs at the turn of the year, both the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have released updates to their respective Dangerous Goods Regulations. In the case of the IATA regulations, much of it has to do with revisions to rules surrounding lithium batteries. Please see our relevant…