SA considers new dangerous goods ruling

Alan Peat
DESPITE A number of airline threats last year to ban dangerous goods shipments from SA, only Singapore Airlines among the majors has instituted an actual embargo.
This followed a series of air consignments of undeclared dangerous goods being cited by the airline community as indications of inadequate management amongst SA exporters/forwarders when it came to shipments of hazardous cargoes.
But this shock to the system seems to have worked, according to Edward Little, executive director of the
SA Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF).
After a meeting with Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) officials, Little told FTW that there had been no infringement of dangerous goods regulations for four months, according to CAA records. And only the one
airline had put its threats into practice.
But Little suggests that
a possible preventative might soon be implemented in SA, following investigation by the CAA of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards.
These have been put into place in both the UK and Holland, and would appear to enforce liability on the appropriate parties - the shippers/agents.
"In these two countries the shipper must sign either a red or green sticker and attach it to his airwaybill. Red for goods classified as dangerous, and green for those which are not."
The benefit here is that the shipper must affix his signature to his airwaybill sticker whether he's transporting dangerous goods or not - and motivates this responsible party to apply his mind to the contents of each consignment, according to Little.
"SA may introduce this same system in future," he said, "but the aviation authorities are still waiting for those details from the ICAO."