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…
Lithium Battery Week is coming! Dangerous Goods Symposium preview, part 2
Finally, Dangerous Goods professionals get their own Shark Week. September 14–18 is Lithium Battery Week at the Dangerous Goods Symposium. Unlike previous years when most of the lithium battery sessions were crammed into a single day, this year’s virtual format gives you a full week of updates, insights and controversial opinions about everyone’s favorite Class…
Dangerous Goods Symposium preview: Competence, compliance and explosives
This year’s Dangerous Goods Symposium, for obvious reasons, won’t assemble the world’s leading trainers, shippers and regulators together for three days in the same physical space. But it will still bring the world’s hazmat shipping community together. This year, you can experience the Symposium at the new DG Exchange—the Dangerous Goods industry’s first digital community.…
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…
Shouldn’t you have more confidence in your hazmat supply chain partners?
Very few organizations maintain their own end-to-end supply chains—we all depend on partners to some extent. That’s why it was disheartening to learn, in the 2019 Dangerous Goods Confidence Outlook, that so many hazmat pros had so little confidence in their supply chain partners: 71% of respondents wished their supply chain partners were as compliant…
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…
The new DG Exchange: Your connection to the Dangerous Goods supply chain community
Not long ago, a longtime friend and colleague told us, “I wish the Dangerous Goods Symposium could somehow happen all year long.” That idea – a year-round place where supply chain and business professionals can connect and share their questions, insights and experience about Dangerous Goods—was the inspiration for the DG Exchange. Launching August 10,…
Beirut explosion reinforces need for hazmat storage safety
On August 4th, 2020, a massive explosion destroyed the port and devastated much of the city of Beirut, Lebanon, located on the Mediterranean Sea. While only preliminary reports exist as of press time, indications are that the blast may have been the result of the detonation for causes yet to be determined of up to…
Results of the 5th Annual DG Confidence Outlook: strengths, weaknesses and tremendous resilience
The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the global dangerous goods supply chain. Yet even as the industry has shown tremendous resilience, this crisis has shed light on weaknesses related to DG organizations’ ability to keep shipments safe and compliant, and the need for further investment in DG training, technology and infrastructure. The 5th annual DG…
How to evaluate and evolve your Dangerous Goods training program—part 2
Last week, we shared strategies from leading Dangerous Goods trainers for evaluating hazmat training programs to determine when they need updating. Here are some powerful tips for evolving your training program to match your current operation—and preparing it for future growth. If 2020 has proved anything, it’s that businesses must always be ready to adapt…