Placarding

Scope

Anyone offering or accepting hazardous materials for shipment in an amount that requires placards must ensure the material is placarded according to the applicable sections of the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR).

Regulatory citations

• 49 CFR Part 172 Subpart F — Placarding

Key definitions

• Freight container: A reusable container having a volume of 64 cubic feet or more, designed and constructed to permit being lifted with its contents intact and intended primarily for containment of packages (in unit form) during transportation.
• Person: An individual, corporation, company, association, firm, partnership, society, joint stock company; or a government, Indian Tribe, or authority of a government or Tribe, that offers a hazardous material for transportation in commerce, transports a hazardous material to support a commercial enterprise, or designs, manufactures, fabricates, inspects, marks, maintains, reconditions, repairs, or tests a package, container, or packaging component that is represented, marked, certified, or sold as qualified for use in transporting hazardous material in commerce.
• Rail car: A car designed to carry freight or non-passenger personnel by rail, and includes a box car, flat car, gondola car, hopper car, tank car, and occupied caboose.
• Residue: The hazardous material remaining in a packaging, including a tank car, after its contents have been unloaded to the maximum extent practicable and before the packaging is either refilled or cleaned of hazardous material and purged to remove any hazardous vapors.
• Subsidiary hazard: The hazard of a material other than the primary hazard.
• Transport vehicle: A cargo-carrying vehicle such as an automobile, van, tractor, truck, semitrailer, tank car, or rail car used for the transportation of cargo by any mode. Each cargo-carrying body (trailer, rail car, etc.) is a separate transport vehicle.
• Unit load device: Any type of freight container, aircraft container, aircraft pallet with a net, or aircraft pallet with a net over an igloo.

Summary of requirements

The responsibility for attaching or supplying placards depends on how the hazardous material is transported and the type of packaging used.

Placards can still be displayed even when they are not required, as long as they meet the regulatory requirements.

The need for placards depends on the material’s category, such as its hazard class, division, packing group, or description, and whether it is in bulk or non-bulk packaging. Shippers must use Table 1 and Table 2 to decide when placards are required. Placards also have to meet specific standards for durability, design, size, and color.

Where placards are placed depends on the size of the package or the type of vehicle being used.