As much as we love getting together with hazmat pros from around the world at the Dangerous Goods Symposium every September, we have to admit there were several advantages to this year’s all-virtual event: You could attend sessions in your pajamas You could mutter objections to the speaker’s opinion without having everyone at your table…
What we can learn from regulatory updates at the DG Symposium
On one level, regulatory update sessions at the 2020 Dangerous Goods Symposium are for true DG diehards—the trainers and shipping managers who have to know hazmat regulations in detail to keep their clients and operations compliant. But even if your job only occasionally touches the Dangerous Goods supply chain, you can still gain valuable insight.…
Want regulatory updates? The 2020 Dangerous Goods Symposium is underway!
With a pastry and a cup of coffee on your desk, the first session of the 2020 Dangerous Goods Symposium felt a lot like previous years. Two regulatory experts were speaking, and trying to take in all the information they shared was like drinking from a firehose. Of course, this year’s Symposium isn’t like other…
Changes you’ll see in the 2020 Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG)
The Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) is essential for all frontline Dangerous Goods personnel, and the 2020 version is finally almost here! We expect to ship our first deliveries in four to five weeks. As expected, this year’s ERG has a multitude of changes from the 2016 version, as PHMSA has assembled an international group of…
What are operator variations, and how do they impact your hazmat shipments?
The IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations manual—known throughout the supply chain as the “IATA DGR”—is universally acknowledged as the world’s single authority on the compliant transport of hazardous materials by air. It’s more than 1,000 pages thick. Surely IATA has issued every rule any shipper would need to know, right? Not quite. There’s a whole chapter…
DG Digest: EU notifies of proposed amendments to the ADR
The week that ended with the Independence Day holiday finds the US continuing its battle with the novel coronavirus outbreak. Let’s all keep moving forward and doing our best to help mitigate the outbreak. The week was very quiet in a regulatory sense, perhaps typical of summer holiday periods. Our friends in the EU kept…
What is master data, and why is it so important for hazmat transport?
What exactly are you shipping? Simple question, right? Not at all. It turns out a lot of shippers don’t know exactly what they’re shipping, and that lack of knowledge has a profound ripple effect on the entire supply chain. I’m talking here about master data—complete, detailed information about a product’s components, makeup, dimensions and origins.…
Hazmat Quizmaster: Do you know how to ship lithium batteries by air?
KEEP YOUR LITHIUM BATTERY SHIPMENTS COMPLIANT Lithium batteries are hazmat, and the regulations for shipping them change often. Keep your shipments safe and compliant with a complete line of lithium battery resources from Labelmaster. 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…
DOT PHMSA Hosts First Lithium Battery Air Safety Advisory Committee Meeting
Last week DOT PHMSA hosted the first Lithium Battery Air Safety Advisory Committee meeting at DOT Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and I had the pleasure of the attending the meeting alongside Labelmaster Services V.P. of Consulting, Pia Jala. Lithium cell and battery production throughout the world continues to grow at an astonishing rate due to…
8 Dangerous Goods myths and misconceptions—busted!
Remember Mythbusters? A couple of former Hollywood effects pros created one of the top shows on cable TV by debunking popular myths and misconceptions. They proved—over and over—that just because “everyone knows” something doesn’t make it true. If there were a supply chain TV network, Dangerous Goods professionals could probably run their own version of…