Hazardous Material Transportation
The Essentials Supporting Business Success

UN Model Regulations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods

Background

The United Nations Model Regulations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods provide a basis for development of harmonized regulations for all modes of transport, in order to facilitate trade and the safe, efficient transport of hazardous materials. The UN Model Regulations were first published in 1957 establishing minimum requirements applicable to the transport of hazardous materials by all modes of transport. Since then the UN Model Regulations have gained global acceptance through adoption as the basis for most international, regional, national and modal transportation regulations. The UN Model Regulations enhance safety, improve enforcement capability, ease training requirements and enhance global trade and economic development. Safety is enhanced primarily because harmonized requirements simplify the complexity of the regulations, simplify training efforts, and decrease the likelihood of non-compliance. The Model Regulations provide economic benefits by eliminating the costs of complying with a multitude of differing national, regional and modal regulations. The UN Model Regulations facilitate compatibility between modal requirements so that a consignment may be transported by more than one mode without intermediate reclassification, marking, labeling or repackaging.

Scope of Applicability

The UN Model Regulations cover all aspects of transportation necessary to provide international uniformity. They include a comprehensive criteria based classification system for substances that pose a significant hazard in transportation. Hazards addressed include explosiveness, flammability, toxicity (oral, dermal and inhalation), corrosivity to human tissue and metal, reactivity (e.g., oxidizing materials, self reactive materials, pyrophoric substances, substances that react with water), radioactivity, infectious substance hazards and environmental hazards. They prescribe standards for packagings and multimodal tanks used to transport hazardous materials. They also include a system of communicating the hazards of substances in transport through hazard communication requirements which cover labeling and marking of packages, placarding of tanks, freight containers and vehicles, and documentation and emergency response information that is required to accompany each shipment.

Current Status

Based on a proposal from the United States the UN Model Regulations were reformatted in the form of a “Model Regulation”. Many national, regional and modal regulations governing the transport of dangerous goods are now based on the UN Recommendations, some of the regulations were structured differently requiring consignors of dangerous goods to be familiar with the unique structure of all applicable regulations. The lack of structural harmony of regulations can frustrate compliance and to the extent that it results in noncompliance is detrimental to safety. Furthermore, a Model Regulation can easily be adopted in National legislations of countries throughout the world eliminating the need for countries to reissue the regulations in the format of their national regulations.

In the past, the process of incorporating amendments to the UN Recommendations was resource intensive. In the case of international organizations, each change to the Recommendations was reevaluated before being introduced into the various international regulations. In some cases the amendments had to be reproposed by governments participating in these meetings. The fact that each of these issues was rediscussed, reworded and reorganized by each of the affected regulatory bodies increased the likelihood for disharmony. The Model Regulation is serving to reduce the necessity for the majority of these efforts and in turn is enhancing harmonization.

United Nations Recommendations

The tenth revised edition of the United Nations Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods (Model Regulations) was the first edition to be published in the format of a Model Regulation. Additional regulatory requirements (e.g. non-bulk packing instructions, rationalized portable tank requirements (T codes and TP notes), IBC packing instructions and requirements for the transport of low hazard solids in non-specification bulk containers) were included in the eleventh and twelfth revised editions of the Model Regulation. The 13th revised edition of the Recommendations was published in the Summer of 2003.

Participants

Participants in the TDG Sub-Committee include 27 countries with voting status and numerous countries and non-governmental organizations with observer status. Click here for a list of TDG Sub-Committee participants (external .doc file). The TDG Sub-Committee is responsible for reviewing proposals from voting member countries and observers in relation to amendments to the UN Recommendations and issues relevant to its work program. The TDG Sub-Committee meets four times in a two year period (biennium). Click here for a list of TDG Sub-Committee meeting dates. RSPA represents the United States at these meetings and formulates U.S. positions based on feedback from U.S. industry, the public and other government agencies.

Implications

The work of the Committee has become increasingly important to both international and domestic transportation of hazardous materials to, from and within the United States. Virtually all hazardous materials imported to or exported from the United States are transported in accordance with international regulations based on the UN Recommendations. In the case of the U.S., the decisions of the TDG Sub-Committee affect an international trade volume in hazardous materials with an estimated dollar value of $160 (based on 2003 data) billion annually. Domestically the US Chemical industry accounted for shipments of chemicals valued at approximately $466.4 billion in 2003. In addition to enhancing safe transportation through improved regulatory consistency, international harmonization of hazardous materials regulations plays a significant role in maintaining a U.S. favorable balance of trade in chemicals. The work of the TDG Sub-Committee also affects a much larger domestic hazardous materials transportation volume.