Road transportation of dangerous goods plays a very important role in China’s chemical industry. Over 300 million tons of refined oil, over 80 million tons of sulfuric acid, and over 32 million tons of sodium hydroxide are transported by road vehicles each year. Undoubtedly, the safety management of road transportation of dangerous goods is of extreme significance. At REACH24H’s Chemical Regulatory Annual Conference (CRAC 2017) in Hangzhou on Nov 2nd, Dr. Jinzhong Wu from the Highway Transport Research Institute under the Ministry of Transport (MOT) introduced some progress of MOT in the improvement of safety management on road transportation of dangerous goods.
The improvements and amendments to the current regulatory framework have been happening for some time now. The exemptions on CO2 Cylinders was the first step, followed by the exemptions on more low-hazard gases. 7 kinds of gas cylinders are now regulated as normal goods and exempted from some requirements on dangerous goods, such as qualification of the shipping company, special vehicles, staff qualification, etc.
A more comprehensive action is the drawing up of Measures for the Safety Administration of Road Transport of Dangerous Goods. The Measures will focus on some issues that the industry is most keen to improve such as:
The exemption system of road transport;
The implementation of Limited Quantities (LQ) and Excepted Quantities (EQ) system (both the authorities and enterprises have found it hard to implement the current national standards on LQ and EQ in practices. So they are going to be revised or replaced by new implementation rules);
The implementation of the consignment document and waybill system;
The inspection on the tank vehicles and tanks;
The access approval arrangement system (Each provinces have different rules on the hours within which the dangerous goods are allowed to be transported. It often causes huge wastes on the time and manpower during the dangerous goods transport)
A couple of draft versions of the Measures have been released and received feedback during the consultation period. Dr. Wu believes that the technical details have been finalized and the release of the new measures is now awaiting internal coordination between the various ministries and departments.
At present, there are 124 national and industrial standards that are related to the transport of dangerous goods. These standards were carried out by various parties at different times, and caused overlaps, gaps and conflicts in requirements. MOT’s ambition is to streamline the requirements and integrate them into 1 comprehensive standard, which is the newly revised JT 617, The Regulation of Road Transportation of Dangerous Goods. The Regulation contains 9 main parts and references the European Agreement Concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road (EU ADR) as follows:
No. | JT/T 617 | ADR | Target |
1 | General provision | Part 1. General provision | Consignor/Carrier |
2 | Classification | Part 2. Classification | Consignor |
3 | Dangerous goods list | Part 3. Dangerous goods list, special provisions and exemptions related to limited and excepted quantities | Consignor/Carrier |
4 | Packaging | Part 4. Packing and tank provisions | Consignor |
5 | Consignment | Part 5. consignment procedures | Consignor/Carrier |
6 | Loading and unloading | Part 7. Provisions concerning the conditions of carriage、loading and unloading and handling | Consignor/Carrier |
7 | Transport condition | Part 8. Requirements for vehicle crews, equipment, operation and documentation | Carrier |
This big standard contains over 800 pages and is under internal review now. MOT intends to publish the finalized version in early 2018. The standard will be made mandatory by MOT announcement.
