Dangerous goods

Unfortunately customers very often take transportation of dangerous goods very lightly.
Incomplete or absolutely no information at all through the customer to the forwarder
in practice leads to high penalties and heavy transport delays.

Extract of the ADR-law:

"The customer has to hand out all documents concerning dangerousness
and accident procedures sheets to the sender."

Who's the customer?
A customer is everybody who assigns someone with something.

Who's the commissioner?
A commissioner is any person who arranges transportation of dangerous goods.
Everybody who directly accords a brief is considered as a commissioner.

The commissioner is responsible for:

	the reliability of transportation of goods
	the packages used
	the correctness of the accompanying documents
	the identification of the vehicle
	the attaching of the hazard label
	the observance of the prohibition to load multiple dangerous goods together
	the check up of the carriage documents

Penalties/Fines:

	Sight check of the package and the vehicles
	Adherence of the forbiddance to load multiple dangerous goods together

Penalties:

The penalties vary per offence from € 726 to € 43.603.

Practical example:
A customer mandates a shipper with the transport of ten tins with
paint, which are considered as dangerous goods.
He doesn't inform the shipper about that and the goods are transported as ordinary goods.
The police declare in a check up that the goods are dangerous.

The penalties for the customer are set as follows:

	missing carriage document (at least € 726)
	no fire extinguisher (at least € 726)
	insufficient tie-down (at least € 726)
	insufficient labelling (at least € 726)

If it isn't a small amount of goods, the following penalties may also be added:

	at least € 726, if the driver has no ADR-license
	at least € 726, if the vehicle has no ADR-equipment

Which costs can arise additionally?

	Reloading of the goods onto another vehicle that is capable of transporting dangerous goods
	Costs for the exceeding of the delivery date, if the vehicle is detained to drive on
	Release from obligation of the insurance for vehicles
	Claim for damages of the social insurance agency
	Transportation and personnel costs for the deposit of money at the temporary position of the vehicle because it isn't allowed to drive on as long as the penalties aren't paid

Therefore it's better to contact the shipper, BEFORE the transport to ensure that all requirements are fulfilled.