General hazmat placarding requirementsWhat requires a hazmat load to have placards? What are the DOT placarding requirements? Do I have to placard for secondary (or subsidiary) hazards? What does table 1 and table 2 mean and how do those tables affect placarding? When can I use a 'Dangerous' placard? These are just some of the questions drivers ask everyday. Making sure you are in compliance with placarding requirements is important. Putting on the wrong placards or not applying enough placards can get you placed out of service. Besides communicating the hazard, placarding requirements determine other compliance issues such as requiring a hazmat endorsement on a CDL for the hazmat load being carried, or extra permits that need to be inside the truck while the hazmat is being delivered.
When hazmat placards are NOT required
Let's start off by determining when placarding is not required. You will need to refer to your shipping papers to find out if any of these exemptions apply. These exceptions are found at the beginning of the placarding section in 172.500(b) and few other sections listed here. Infectious substances: Ex. Regulated medical waste ORM-D: Ex. Charcoal briquettes, some ammunition Limited quantities: HM offered for transportation as Limited Quantities when identified on the shipping papers. Examples are "Potassium Bromate, 5.1, UN1484, II, LTD QTY" Small quantities: As defined in 173.13 and 173.4 and packaged under those requirements. An once of sulfuric acid, for example. Combustible liquids in Non-Bulk packages: Definition of Bulk and Non-bulk can be found on our hazmat basics page and in 171.8 in the regs. An example would be a one gallon can of paint thinner. Class 9 materials in domestic transportation (172.504(f)(9)) Wet Batteries (see 173.159) Materials of trade (173.6) Some Cryogenic exemptions (173.320)
Table 1 materials - Placard any amount
Table 1 commodities, Bulk packages and Subsidiary placards that are one of 'The Big 3' (see below) will require that you must apply placards. The table below is taken from 172.504(e) which is broken down into 3 basic columns.
Here's a quick rundown of how its laid out: Column 1 is the Category of the material, the hazard class and division. This number is found on your shipping papers, and also at the bottom of the placard. Since placards are shaped like a baseball diamond, this is the number at "home plate". Column 2 Placards all have a name that's given in the section reference column, that helps to know which placard you're dealing with. The name of the placard is important. For example, a division 2.3 placard that has "Inhalation Hazard" (like the graphic at the top of page) is NOT called an 'Inhalation Hazard' placard...It's real name is 'Poison Gas'. Column 3 is the section reference in the regulations that shows a picture of how the placard should look, and lists the name of the placard given in column 2.
1. RADIOACTIVE placard also required for exclusive use shipments of low specific activity material and surface contaminated objects transported in accordance with 173.427(b)(4) and (5) View the gallery of table 1 placard pictures
Bulk Package placardsBulk packages are required to be placarded. Here's the definition (paraphrased) of Bulk a package, which is defined in 171.8 as: ...a packaging other than a vessel or barge, including a transport vehicle or freight container, in which hazardous materials are loaded with no intermediate form of containment and which has: Maximum capacity of greater than 450L (119 gallons) as a receptacle for liquids, or Maximum net mass greater than 400kg (882 pounds) and a maximum capacity greater than 450L (119 gallons) as a receptacle for a solid, or A water capacity greater than 454kg (1000 pounds) as a receptacle for gas.
Subsidiary placards'Subsidiary' for placarding purposes, essentially means 'Secondary' or 'hazard in addition to'. If the shipping papers are prepared in compliance with the regulations, any subsidiary hazards should be listed right after the primary hazard in parentheses for example, 3 (8, 5.1). Subsidiary hazards are listed under "column 6 - Label codes" on the 172.101 hazmat table. The big question always is - "Do I have to placard for all subsidiary hazards"? The answer is NO. You only have to apply subsidiary placards for three types of material, one of which commodity specific. These placards are commonly referred to as the "The big 3". For many drivers and carriers, this is really the 'big 2'. Hazards other than the big 3 may be placarded for permissively.
Remember... Once you have to placard for the subsidiary hazard, you must placard for the primary hazard, reguardless of amount your hauling. In other words, it's treated like its a table 1 product. For example, a material has a primary hazard class of 3 and a subsidiary hazard class of 6.1 poisonous by inhalation, one of our subsidiary hazards. The class 3 is a table 2 material that requires a 1,001lbs before it requires placards (scroll down to read more about table 2), so let's say we're hauling a 100lbs of it. Because the subsidiary hazard is a 6.1 poisonous by inhalation, the transport vehicle must have two placards; A class 3 flammable placard and a 6.1 inhalation hazard placard. The Subsidiary placards are: Poisonous by inhalation 2.3 Poison Gas placard (172.540) and the 6.1 Poison Inhalation Hazard placard (172.172.55). Note these materials are also Table 1 materials. (172.101 table special provisions column 7, numbers 1-6 and 13 Dangerous when wet (Division 4.3) Corrosive for Uranium Hexafluoride Class 7 - This very specialized, there will be no doubt you have this on board! This is NOT for EVERY corrosive subsidiary hazard. It's commodity specific, so it's ONLY for Uranium Hexafluoride. View the gallery of subsidiary placards
Table 2 materials - 1,001lbs or moreTable 2 commodities require that you have 1,001 pounds (or more) of aggregate gross weight on-board before you have to apply placards. So the next question is: "What's aggregate gross weight"? First, we'll start by defining what gross weight is, which can be found in 171.8 of the regs. Gross weight is simply the package (box, paint can etc.) plus the hazmat it contains. Package + contents = Gross weight. Aggregate means that we're going to add the gross weight of all of those packages together to determine placarding. So if you're carrying 12 boxes of a class 3 flammable material that each weigh 100 pounds each, the total is 1200 pounds. You would have to placard for that hazmat, because the aggregate gross weight of the load is more than 1,001 pounds. Table 2: 1,001 pounds or more
View the gallery of table 2 placards
The Dangerous Placard
|
| Next > |
|---|