Lack of training a critical issue

Manufacturers and
cargo terminal ground
handling staff are not
always up to speed with
the latest regulations
around the safe handling
and packaging of dangerous
goods, making it necessary to
seek expert advice to ensure
compliance.
Grant Holland, managing
director of dangerous
goods specialist Hexagon
Packaging, said a major
challenge still facing the
logistics and manufacturing
sectors was ensuring correct
staff training to identify and
correctly handle dangerous
goods.
“The biggest trend we
see in our business at the
moment is that the minute
our clients see anything
in relation to lithium,
they immediately send the
details to our operations
team to check whether it is
just labelling and correct
declaring or full dangerous
goods packing required.
Because regulations are
changing on a continuous
basis, our clients find that
it is easier to deal with an
expert to always ensure their
shipments comply,” he said.
Disputes with cargo
terminals with regard to
dangerous goods declarations
and packaging are a recurring
problem, according to
Holland. “And we always find
that it reverts to the same
thing, either there is little or no
training, or new regulations
have been
implemented
and ground
handling staff are not
aware of these changes,” he
said.
The company’s dangerous
goods consultants assisted
clients daily with the checking
of shipments to ensure safety
and packaging compliance
with international regulations,
he added.
“We offer this service at
no additional charge and by
doing so we are giving back to
our clients to ensure they have
information at hand.
However, Holland added
that more manufacturers were
turning to dangerous goods
consultants for assistance.
“When they are
manufacturing dangerous
goods they are taking care
to ensure the packaging
they use meets international
standards and is designed with
the transport of goods over
different modes of transport
in mind. We are no longer
seeing big shipments having
to be decanted for transport,
or changing the packaging
altogether. Our purpose
now has become more of a
regulatory body in the industry
to check goods as opposed to
complete repacking,” he said.