7bridges allows you to send dangerous goods shipments via the following carriers:
- TNT UK
Dangerous goods are items that require special handling and typically have to be notified to carriers before pickup. Dangerous goods include materials such as chemicals and biological agents, as well as lithium batteries used in many electronic devices. In order to ship dangerous goods you may require an agreement with your carrier that you understand the amount and packaging requirements associated with shipping these materials. When sending dangerous goods the requirements for shipping depend on a few different things:
- the exact type of dangerous good, as given by the material's UN number
- the amount of material being transferred
Dangerous materials may generally be shipped according to one of the 3 categories:
- excepted quantity
- limited quantity
- unlimited quantity
According to the material's UN number the amount that can be shipped and meet the requirements of each of these categories varies and can be found in part 3 of the UN agreement concerning carriage of dangerous goods by road.
While lithium batteries are not a separate dangerous goods category they tend to be treated as such by carriers due to the number of shipments which contain them and so typically have slightly different handling requirements relative to other dangerous goods - for example for shipping small quantities of lithium batteries it is not typically required to have a dangerous goods agreement with your carrier (please confirm the exact details with the carriers you plan to ship lithium batteries with).
In order to ship dangerous goods items within the 7bridges platform a number of steps are needed:
- indicate that one or more items in a shipment are dangerous by including the quantity category and the UN number associated with the good
- complete the shipment booking process as normal
- ensure that all packaging and labelling requirements as required by the nature of the good are followed - this is not enforced by the 7bridges platform, and it is your responsibility to meet the requirements of the origin, destination and carrier for the shipment
Items can be indicated as dangerous in two ways:
- when using the 7bridges API to publish orders include the dg_quantity_category and un_number attributes for the dangerous item, or
- within the 7bridges platform, when editing the product details for the shipment contents - this interface can also be used to edit existing dangerous goods details.
Including dangerous goods flags via the API
Including or editing dangerous goods information within the platform
After one or more items in a shipment is marked as dangerous then the overall shipment is flagged as dangerous and highlighted during the Send process - packers should ensure that all dangerous shipments meet required regulations before dispatch.
