While you are at the controls with your seat belt fastened, the papers must be in the door pouch or somewhere you can reach easily and that anyone entering the cab can readily see. Papers hidden under a seat or in a glove compartment could be missed by emergency responders after a crash.
Everyone who handles the waste signs the manifest: the shipper prepares and signs it, each carrier signs when it takes over the shipment, and the receiving facility signs at delivery. A missing signature would leave a gap in the record of who had custody of the waste.
Entries must be ordered as the ID number, the proper shipping name, and the hazard class or division, finishing with the packing group where one applies. Only the acetone entry is in that order: the hexanes entry opens with the name, and in the hydrochloric acid entry the class comes ahead of the name.
Hazard class names and identification numbers exist to warn people about regulated materials, so using them for a material that is not hazardous is prohibited. Hazardous substances and hazardous wastes are regulated, so they are described this way.
The HM column exists to flag hazardous materials: an X marks a regulated hazardous item, and RQ may appear instead when the amount is a reportable quantity. Either mark means the hazardous materials rules apply to that entry.
A shipper has to keep each shipping paper, or an electronic image of it, for 2 years after the first carrier accepts the material. Hazardous waste calls for a longer period of 3 years.
Emergency crews must be able to find the papers fast. When you leave the cab, they go in the driver's door pouch or on the driver's seat; while driving, keep them in plain view and within reach with your seat belt on, never tucked under a seat.
It is the shipper's job to provide information describing the hazards of each material it sends; the driver only carries that information, and the National Response Center helps coordinate the response to incidents reported to it.
Federal rules call for an emergency response phone number on hazmat shipping papers. The line must be monitored the whole time the shipment is in transit by someone who can give details on the product's hazards and how to respond.
Shippers communicate the risk in several ways, so both a hazard class entered on the shipping paper and a diamond label on a package are signs of hazardous cargo. Relying on just one of them could cause you to miss the danger.
The shipping papers must describe any hazardous materials in the load, so they are where you should check. Opening packages is unnecessary and can be dangerous, and a fence around a dock tells you nothing about the cargo.
When hazardous materials papers are carried with other shipping papers, they must be easy to pick out, either by tabbing them or by putting them first, above every other paper. Staples or a rubber band do not make them stand out.
When the driver is out of the seat, the papers must stay in the vehicle, either in the door pouch or on the driver's seat, where anyone entering the cab can find them quickly. Carrying them with you or leaving them on the dashboard does not meet the rule.
Start the basic description with the UN or NA identification number. Next comes the proper shipping name, followed by the hazard class or division, and the packing group closes the entry when one applies.
When hazardous and ordinary products share one shipping paper, the hazardous ones must be easy to pick out, and highlighting them in a contrasting color does that. The other accepted methods are listing them before the non-hazardous items or marking them with an X (or RQ) in the HM column.
A hazardous material's basic description follows a fixed sequence: the ID number comes first, followed in order by the proper shipping name, hazard class or division, and packing group when one is assigned. The packing group indicates the material's degree of danger.
Shipping papers and labels reflect only what the shipper declared, so a package can still contain undeclared hazardous materials even when its papers list none and it carries no labels. Neither check alone is a guarantee.
The basic description must start with the UN or NA identification number, followed by the proper shipping name, then the hazard class, and then the packing group when there is one. The acetone entry begins with the hazard class and the sulfuric acid entry puts the name before the ID number, so only the gasoline entry is in sequence.
Every shipping description must state the total quantity of the hazardous material and its unit of measure, such as pounds or gallons, along with how many packages there are and what kind they are. This applies to all amounts, not only to loads above a reportable quantity or a set weight.
Hazardous cargo is not always obvious, so drivers watch for clues such as the shipper's line of work (chemical, paint, pest control, or fireworks suppliers, for example) and tanks marked with diamond labels or placards at the site. Each of these is a recognized warning sign.
An "X" in the HM column identifies the entry as a regulated hazardous material; the letters "RQ" may appear there instead when the material is also a reportable quantity of a hazardous substance.
While you drive, the papers must sit in the pocket on the driver's door or be plainly visible and within immediate reach with your seat belt fastened. Whenever you leave the vehicle, they go on the driver's seat so emergency responders can find them quickly.
RQ stands for reportable quantity. The shipper adds these letters whenever the amount of a hazardous material in a shipment is large enough that a spill or release would have to be reported to federal authorities.
Federal rules spell out what this information must contain, including how to deal with a fire, how to handle a spill or leak when nothing is burning, and what first aid to give, so each item listed here is required.
Hazardous waste travels under this manifest: the shipper and each carrier sign it by hand, and the driver keeps it with the load as the shipping paper until the waste reaches a registered treatment or disposal facility. It goes with the shipment from the start, not only after a spill or on interstate trips.
Shippers must describe hazardous materials on the shipping papers, which makes those papers the first and surest source. Opening every package would be impractical and risky, and the weight of a load says nothing about what it contains.
RQ marks a reportable quantity of a hazardous substance, which means the carrier is required to report any spill or release of that material to the proper government agency.
Every question in this set has its own page with the correct answer and an explanation.
