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Hazmat · Placarding

When may a DANGEROUS placard stand in for the separate placards a mixed load would otherwise need, and what cancels the substitution?

1.For non-bulk packages of two or more second-table categories needing different placards; but 1,000 kg (2,205 pounds) aggregate gross weight or more of one category at one facility forces its placardCorrect answer
2.It may be used for any mixed hazardous load at all, bulk packagings included, with no upper weight limit and no condition attached to how much of any one category happens to be loaded aboard at a single facility
3.It must be used whenever a vehicle carries more than one hazard class aboard, taking the place of every other placard that would otherwise have been needed on the vehicle at all
4.It may be used only when the whole load weighs under 454 kg (1,001 pounds) aggregate gross weight, which is the point below which second-table placards are not required at all

Explanation

The substitution is available for non-bulk packages holding two or more second-table categories whose placards differ, and it stops being available for any one category once 1,000 kg (2,205 pounds) aggregate gross weight or more of that category is loaded at one loading facility, at which point that category's own placard is required. Three qualifiers in that sentence are easy to lose and each changes the answer: the allowance is for non-bulk packages, the weight is measured per category rather than across the load, and it is tied to a single loading facility rather than to the trip as a whole. The regulation also says this placard may be used, not must, so a carrier is always free to placard for each material instead. The second and third options misstate the scope in opposite directions, one extending it to bulk packagings without limit and one making it mandatory, while the fourth confuses it with the separate weight figure below which second-table materials need no placards.

Source: 49 CFR 172.504(b)

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