What is CHEMTREC's Role?
Registration with CHEMTREC® helps to enable shippers of hazardous materials to comply with the US Department of Transportation hazardous materials regulation 49 CFR § 172.604, which requires hazmat shippers to provide a 24-hour emergency telephone number on shipping documents for use in the event of an emergency involving hazardous materials.
When do the Hazardous Materials Regulations apply?
It is the shipper’s responsibility to determine whether the product being shipped is subject to the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR). The Hazardous Materials Table contained in the HMR (49 CFR 172.101) is a listing of proper shipping names. If the product to be shipped is identified in the table, then it is usually regulated by the HMR. If the product is not listed in the Hazardous Materials Table, it is incumbent upon the shipper to determine if the product meets one of DOT’s hazard classes (49 CFR §173.2) and is therefore subject to the regulations.
Regulatory Compliance
On a daily basis, CHEMTREC receives numerous calls from federal and state inspectors, as well as many responsible inter-modal carriers who are seeking to verify that a shipper showing the CHEMTREC phone number is indeed authorized by CHEMTREC to do so. Regrettably, whether as a result of ignorance of the need to do so, or sometimes through willful disregard for due process and compliance, some shippers fail to secure such an authorization from CHEMTREC. Not only is this a violation of federal regulation 49CFR§172.604, but more importantly the resulting confusion presents the opportunity for delaying or limiting the assistance CHEMTREC can provide to the first response incident commander mitigating a hazmat incident. It is only by going through CHEMTREC registration that a shipper can provide the essential emergency contact information and technical descriptions (such as MSDS) that enable CHEMTREC to immediately arm the incident commander with vital and time-critical assistance.
That is why CHEMTREC is happy to work arm-in-arm with the enforcement and carrier community in discouraging such irresponsible disregard for regulatory compliance and product stewardship.
CHEMTREC encourages members of the regulatory enforcement community to contact its Customer Service department to verify the legitimate authorization of any shippers showing the CHEMTREC phone number on shipping documents.