Hazmat · Regulations and Responsibilities
A shipment is offered to you prepared in a way that does not meet the hazardous materials regulations. What do the regulations say about accepting or hauling it?
Explanation
A hazardous material that is not prepared the way the regulations require may not be accepted for transportation or transported by motor vehicle at all. The same prohibition catches a forbidden material, which the regulations define to include anything the hazardous materials table marks as forbidden in its hazard class column, subject to the opening qualifier that applies unless the subchapter provides otherwise somewhere else. The duty sits on the person accepting or hauling the load, which is why refusing an improper shipment is part of the driver's and carrier's job rather than a favor to the shipper. The three wrong options all let the load roll on the strength of something that is not a cure, a note and an agreement between private parties, a short run to fix it later, or correct placards compensating for an otherwise improper shipment.
Source: 49 CFR 177.801
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