The nation enters the second week of August with most of the country still struggling to contain the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Be sure you, your family, and your workplace colleagues do the best you can to help stop the spread and protect everyone’s health. There was a variety of news this week. The Postal Service…
DG Digest: PHMSA and FRA to allow LNG (UN 1972) on railways in enhanced tankers
As we approach the end of July, response to the COVID-19 pandemic continues to dominate the nation’s attention and effort. Accelerating infection rates in many regions are causing renewed shutdowns at some employers. What we can do as an industry is to work to help keep our employees as safe as possible, and ensure that…
DG Digest: PHMSA extends relaxation of enforcement for COVID-19 specific rules
The new week brings with it renewed concerns over the pace of the COVID-19 pandemic. The outbreak continues to accelerate at present, so it’s more important than ever for us to make sure that our workplaces follow all applicable guidelines to keep employees as safe as possible under the present circumstances. The week also brought…
DG Digest: PHMSA extends COVID-19 exceptions, EPA publishes final Methylene Chloride risk evaluation
As we wrap up June, the nation is unfortunately experiencing a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic in many states. It’s important to be mindful of the necessary precautions to help keep your workplace as safe as possible for your level of operations. It’s also important to stay safe at home and while in your community.…
DG Digest Special Notice: PHMSA extends emergency exemptions for hand sanitizer shipping and recertification training
In breaking news, today PHMSA published deadline extensions to its currently in force emergency exemptions allowing for both non-standard domestic ground shipment of some alcohol based hand sanitizers as well as a continuation of the extension of training recertification requirements under the 49 CFR 172.704(c)(2) past their normal expiration dates. The extensions will now run…
DG Digest: PHMSA announces development of U.S. policy on safety devices in transport
Mid-June finds the nation enduring another week forward in our “summer like no other.” As areas reopen from pandemic related lockdowns, be sure to be safe yourself, follow health guidelines and do all you can to help your fellow employees be safe too. Concurrently be aware of civil actions that may encompass the location of…
DG Digest: FMCSA publishes revised Hazardous Materials Route Registry
The week just ended found us all seemingly stuck on “repeat,” which has become an enduring facet of one of the most difficult years the United States has faced in the modern era. Efforts to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and deal with our nation’s civil crisis continued. In the meantime, regulatory action continues, although…
DG Digest: PHMSA withdraws proposed vapor limits for unrefined petroleum and class 3 materials on the nation’s railways
The nation paused over the weekend just concluded to honor its fallen military veterans and also, this year, to mark the unimaginable toll taken of our fellow citizens by the COVID-19 pandemic. Surely it was a Memorial Day unlike any of us now living has experienced. The Labelmaster family joins our country in honoring those…
Want to show supply chain workers real gratitude? Make hazmat compliance more important.
For workers in the Dangerous Goods supply chain, the first quarter of 2020 was extraordinary—for two reasons. The first reason? That’s obvious. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered seismic shifts in what we ship, how much we ship and how we ship it, and the global supply chain met the challenge. Despite a steep drop in overall…
DG Digest: FAA issues further guidance to carriers and crews; PHMSA in battles with two states over jurisdictional authority
In what we may all welcome as a hopeful sign of progress, mid-May finds, for the first time in several weeks, a relatively quiet regulatory world, with only a few actions in the news. Given the heavy load of notices that have characterized the blog in the last six weeks or so, perhaps we’re all…