Who Needs Training?
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) strictly mandates both initial and recurrent training for anyone who handles, prepares, offers, or transports hazardous materials/ dangerous goods . If your personnel packs, marks, labels, loads (or unloads) and/or documents hazmat/DG shipments, they must be hazmat/DG trained and tested. This applies to logistics providers (i.e., freight forwarders, brokers, and consolidators), supply chain partners (i.e., shippers, importers and handling agents), carriers (i.e., truckers, steamship lines, and air carrier handling agents), as well as DoD shipping personnel, warehouse staff and government contractors. Training is not limited to the personnel who physically prepare the shipments, the DOT explicitly requires training for anyone who may affect the safety of the shipments during transport including local pick-up or delivery drivers and other warehouse staff.
Following recent transport incidents, the DOT, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and others federal regulatory agencies have heavily intensified enforcement of hazmat/DG training mandates, imposing severe fines and penalties for non-compliance. Operating a commercial transportation vehicles above specific regulatory weights requires a valid Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) issued by the State. In addition to a CDL, Motor carriers and drivers must secure a formal hazmat endorsement on their CDL if they haul regulated hazardous materials / dangerous goods above the prescribed weight thresholds and classifications.
Beyond ground transport and state requirements, the FAA and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are focus heavily on personnel who handle/process air freight. They require full training for any individual handling hazmat/DG cargo for air freight, including packaging, marking, labeling, documentation. This is meant to ensure all hazmat/DG shipments are delivered, securely and safely, to the air carriers. Adhering to strict compliance protocols to maintain the safe transport of aviation cargo.