Regulation

172.204

Regulation summary

Section 172.204 establishes the general requirements for a shipper’s certification of hazardous materials.

Question/Dilemma

In this scenario, a carrier requests clarification of the hazardous materials regulations (HMR) applicable to a shipper’s certification on a shipping paper. The carrier received a warning from law enforcement because the shipper’s certification was not included on the delivery receipt for a hazardous materials shipment that had been picked up the previous day.

At the time of the inspection, the shipment was being transported with their company’s in-house delivery receipts, created from the information contained on the original bill of lading. The carrier asks if the delivery receipt containing all the required information except the shipper’s certification is acceptable.

In this interpretation, PHMSA addresses the HMR applicability of a shipper’s certification on shipping papers.

Interpretation summary

In interpretation Ref. No. 97-007608334, PHMSA advises that each person who offers a hazardous material for transportation must certify that the material is offered for transportation in accordance with the HMR by printing and signing (manually or mechanically) the shipping paper containing the language in 172.204.

• Acceptable language used for shipper certification: “This is to certify that the above-named materials are properly classified, described, packaged, marked and labeled, and are in proper condition for transportation according to the applicable regulations of the Department of Transportation.”
• Each carrier must maintain the certification showing that the shipment accepted was prepared in accordance with the HMR.
• However, nothing in the HMR requires that the shipper’s certification must be on any subsequent paperwork (delivery receipt) prepared for that shipment.
• Therefore, the shipper’s certification is not required to be listed on in-house delivery receipts, and the original shipping paper does not have to accompany the in-house delivery receipt.
• The shipping paper must be retained for two years after the material is accepted by the initial carrier.