Section 9.3

9.3 Communication Rules

9.3.1 Definitions

Some words and phrases have special mean­ings when talking about hazardous materials. Some of these may differ from meanings you are used to. The words and phrases in this section may be on your test. The meanings of other important words are in the glossary at the end of Section 9.

A material's hazard class reflects the risks associated with it. There are nine different hazard classes. The types of materials included in these nine classes are in the tables under the heading "Hazardous Material Class".

A shipping paper describes the hazardous materials being transported. Shipping orders, bills of lading, and manifests are all shipping papers. Figure 9.6 shows an example shipping paper.

After an accident or hazardous materials spill or leak, you may be injured and unable to communicate the hazards of the materials you are transporting. Firefighters and police can prevent or reduce the amount of damage or injury at the scene if they know what hazardous materials are being carried. Your life, and the lives of others, may depend on quickly locating the hazardous materials shipping papers. For that reason the rules require:

• Shippers to describe hazardous materials correctly and include an emergency response telephone number on shipping papers.
• Carriers and drivers to quickly identify haz­ardous materials shipping papers, or keep them on top of other shipping papers and keep the required emergency response information with the shipping papers.
• Drivers to keep hazardous materials ship­ping papers:
  • In a pouch on the driver's door, or
  • In clear view within immediate reach while the seat belt is fastened while driv­ing, or
  • On the driver's seat when out of the ve­hicle.

Hazard Materials Classes