PennDOT - Hazardous Materials Endorsement Renewal Manual

a shipping paper describes the hazardous materials being transported.
Shipping orders, bills of lading and manifests are all shipping papers. Figure
6 shows an example of 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.
• Require carriers and drivers to put tabs on hazardous materials
shipping papers, or keep them on top of other shipping papers and
keep the required emergency response information with the shipping
papers.
• Require 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.
PACKAGE LABELS
Shippers put diamond-shaped hazard warning labels on most hazardous
materials packages. These labels inform others of the hazard. If the
diamond label won't fit on the package, shippers may put the label on a tag
securely attached to the package. For example, compressed gas cylinders
that will not hold a label will have tags or decals. Labels look like the
example in figure 2.
Figure 2
Example of Labels
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