We remind customers that the Canadian Authorities (Transport Canada) are closely checking Dangerous Goods Notes to ensure they have been correctly completed.
Below are three examples of common mistakes identified after recent inspections.
- The requirement for an explicit 24 hour emergency number was not followed. The DGN only mentioned ‘Emergency Telephone Number’ not '24 Hour Emergency Telephone Number', so the container was detained.
- The '24 hour Emergency Telephone Number' on one DGN had been stamped over, resulting in the number being unclear. In the event of an emergency time would have been lost if the emergency contact could not be reached, and this would have endangered the lives of the emergency teams. The container was therefore detained until the number was made clear.
- The technical description of an NOS substance included the trade name. Trade names are not acceptable, and shippers should not include these on documentation. The container was detained until the technical name was clarified.
Should DGNs not meet the above requirements there may be significant delay to your shipment. Should OOCL incur additional costs as a result of this we would have no option but to recover these from our customer.
For help on correct DGN completion, please refer to the SITPRO guidelines, however please note that these do not make clear the need to explicitly add a 24 hour emergency contact. This should be added into the body of the details section.
We also recommend you only use option (i) in box 12 section (e), as the Canadians are not permitting the information sequence as listed in option (ii).
From 1st January 2008 Amendment 33 of the IMDG code will be fully implemented. Consequently all dangerous cargo to any vessel sailing from any European port on or after the 1st January 2008 must comply with this amendment.
One change is in the documentation section regarding the order of dangerous goods description. Customers need to be aware when checking or completing DGNs that the UN Number must, from the 1st January 2008, precede the description as per example below. This is taken from chapter 5.4 paragraph 5.4.1.4.4.
UN 1098 ALLYL ALCOHOL 6.1 (3) I (21 C c.c)
Please feel free to call your local export customer service office for further details.
