Online Training & Certification Course Shipping Dangerous Goods by Air, Road, Rail and Sea
This course presents an overview of dangerous goods regulations regarding the shipping of hazardous materials by road, air, rail, and vessel and is designed to teach you about the hazards and safety measures involved in the handling and transportation of hazardous materials.
What are the governing regulations? The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) oversee the regulations discussed in this course. Each has its own set of regulations; however, many parts of these regulations are similar. You will need to be able to reference each set of regulations in order to best understand the complexities of this course.
Who must take this training? The course aims to provide employees with an understanding of hazardous materials, their potential danger, and the regulations for transporting hazardous materials by road, air, rail, and vessel.
Case Study: Around 10 percent of container cargo worldwide comprises hazardous goods, but as the following disaster makes clear, not every shipper chooses to declare the presence of hazardous materials. The process for calculating cargo risk that is currently used by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in the United States begins with an analysis of the cargo manifest that an ocean carrier provides about any shipment that has been accepted for transport to the United States. This cargo manifest is provided to CBP by the carrier based on information provided by a shipper about the cargo it has contracted for transport. Since the container is sealed, an ocean carrier is in no position to confirm the accuracy of the declarations it receives from its customers. Essentially, it is an honor system. Unfortunately, some shippers are not always forthcoming about the cargo they are shipping. This reality was made clear on March 21, 2006. The M/V Hyundai Fortune, a large ocean-going containership, transiting from Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal, had a catastrophic fire off the Gulf of Aden, 60 miles south of the coast of Yemen. Efforts to contain the fire failed and the crew abandoned ship. Ultimately, the ten-year old ship was sold for scrap. The cause of the fire is believed to have been a container loaded with petroleum-based cleaning fluids stowed near the engine room. The shipper failed to indicate the hazardous nature of this shipment to the Hyundai Fortune, undoubtedly to avoid the special handling fees associated with transporting hazardous materials.
Key Takeaway: Failure to comply with shipping regulations can have far-reaching and catastrophic results for people, companies, and the environment.
It will take a MINIMUM of 10 hours to complete this online course. The student may log on and off as needed. A bookmark will be set so when they log back in they will return to where they left off.
We have no restrictions on how long a person takes to complete a course.
Likewise, if you are purchasing for others, we have no time limit on assigning courses. So you can purchase a larger quantity then you currently need and take advantage of volume discounts.
Recurrent training must take place within two years (24 months) of the previous training, unless a relevant authority defines a shorter period.
The DOT Hazmat Shipping regulations state that: Refresher – or recurrent – training is required at least every three years.
The IMO has not specified any time frame for required retraining or recertification within the IMDG Code.
U.S. or foreign vessels operating in the navigable waters of the United States however must adhere to the retraining requirements for HAZMAT employees as outlined in 49 CFR part 176 section 13 Responsibility for compliance and training which states:
(b) A carrier may not transport a hazardous material by vessel unless each of its HAZMAT employees involved in that transportation is trained as required by subpart H of part 172 of this subchapter.
Upon successful completion each student will have immediate access to a printable certificate and wallet card for proof of Multimodal Shipping Online Training.
NOTE: If you are shipping hazardous materials in the United States the FAA (the enforcement agency in the U.S.) requires you to have received DOT Hazardous Materials General and Security Awareness (49 CFR §172.704) training in addition to IATA DGR training.
If you do not have a copy, you will need to purchase the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR) Manual both for reference purposes in your day to day shipping operations, and while taking this course.
You can access the "IATA DGR 61st Edition Significant Changes" document from our "Resources" section.
