Hazardous Materials in the Service Van
Why this matters
Almost every service van on the road is a hazardous materials vehicle under federal law. A refrigerant jug, a nitrogen bottle, a gallon of muriatic acid, a can of gasoline for the trimmer and a case of PVC cement all appear in the Hazardous Materials Regulations. What keeps a three-person plumbing shop out of shipping papers, placards and formal hazmat training is one exception, the Materials of Trade exception at 49 CFR 173.6. It is generous, and it has hard edges. Inside them you need a few labels and a secured load. One step outside, every requirement you thought you were exempt from applies at once, and you will usually learn that at a roadside inspection or after a crash.
This card owns transport for the library. How to physically arrange the load is its own article (see related).
The gate: who the exception is for
A material of trade, defined at 49 CFR 171.8, is a hazardous material carried on a motor vehicle by a private motor carrier for one of three purposes:
- to protect the health and safety of the driver or passengers (a fire extinguisher, an insect repellent);
- to support the operation or maintenance of the vehicle or its auxiliary equipment (a spare battery, gasoline for a generator);
- in direct support of a principal business that is not transportation, which is the one that covers the trades: a plumber's acid, an HVAC tech's cylinders, a pest tech's product, a pool tech's chlorine.
Private motor carrier means you are hauling your own materials for your own work. A shop that delivers chemicals to customers for a fee, or a crew that hauls a supplier's product, is doing transportation and is outside the gate.
The definition also shuts out three things no matter how small the quantity: hazardous waste that requires an EPA manifest, self-reactive materials, and materials that are poisonous by inhalation. The waste exclusion is narrower than it sounds. DOT's term means waste subject to EPA's manifest rules, and universal waste and a very small quantity generator's waste do not need a manifest. That is why a van returning with its own handful of dead batteries and used tubes can usually ride under this exception. Used and damaged lithium batteries are the exception to that comfort, because 49 CFR 173.185 sets its own packaging for them. See related: Lithium-Ion Batteries in Tools, Vans and Customer Equipment.
The two limits: per package and per vehicle
The exception caps each package and caps the whole vehicle. Both must hold.
| What it is | Per-package cap under 173.6(a) | Common service-van examples |
|---|---|---|
| Class 3, 8, 9 or Division 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 6.1, Packing Group I | 0.5 kg (1 lb) or 0.5 L (1 pint) | Rare in the trades; some concentrated acids and pesticides |
| Same classes, Packing Group II or III | 30 kg (66 lb) or 30 L (8 gallons) | Gasoline, muriatic acid, drain openers, PVC cement, pool chlorine, many pesticides |
| Division 2.1 or 2.2 in a cylinder | 100 kg (220 lb) gross weight per cylinder | Propane, acetylene, refrigerant, nitrogen, oxygen |
| Division 4.3 (dangerous when wet), Packing Group II or III | 30 mL (1 ounce) | Almost never carried |
| Diesel fuel | 1,500 L (400 gallons) in a tank | A transfer tank on an equipment truck |
Packing group is DOT's degree-of-danger tier within a class: I is great danger, II medium, III minor. Section 14 of the product's safety data sheet gives the class, the UN number and the packing group, which is how you find the right row. See related: Reading a Safety Data Sheet: the Sections That Matter.
The per-vehicle cap is 200 kg (440 lb) aggregate gross weight of all materials of trade on the vehicle, under 173.6(d). Gross means the container and the contents, so a steel cylinder counts at its full weight, not its gas weight. Diesel in a qualifying tank is the one item carved out of the total. Tools, parts and anything that is not a hazardous material do not count.
The four conditions inside the exception
Packaging. Under 173.6(b), packages must be leaktight for liquids and siftproof for solids, securely closed, secured against shifting, and protected against damage. Each material goes in the manufacturer's original packaging or one of equal or greater strength and integrity. An outer box is not required for a can or bottle that is secured against movement in a cage, bin, cart, box or compartment, which is what a van shelf with a lip and a strap is. Gasoline must be in a metal or plastic container meeting the standards 173.6 names; a milk jug or a drink bottle fails. Cylinders must be DOT specification cylinders, in good condition, with the valve protected.
Marking. A non-bulk package other than a cylinder must be marked with the common name or the proper shipping name of what is inside: "Muriatic acid", "Gasoline", "PVC cement". The manufacturer's label usually does this for you. A decanted product in an unmarked spray bottle does not. Cylinders must keep their DOT marking and hazard label as required by 49 CFR Part 172, which is one more reason not to strip or paint over the shoulder label on a refrigerant jug.
The driver's knowledge. The operator must be informed that hazardous materials are aboard and of the requirements of 173.6. That is the entire training obligation under this exception. It is a low bar, and it is also the one most often unmet: a new hire who has never been told the van holds acetylene is not "informed". A short written note in the van file, signed at hire, is the cheapest proof.
What you are spared. Inside the exception there are no shipping papers, no emergency response information on board, no placards, and none of the formal hazmat employee training under 49 CFR Part 172 Subpart H. OSHA's hazard communication duties still run to your employees as handlers of the chemicals; that is a separate law and it is not waived by a transport exception.
What falls outside, and what that costs
Exceed either cap, carry a material the definition excludes, or haul for someone else, and the load is simply a hazardous materials shipment under the full regulations. The consequences stack:
- Shipping papers describing each material, within the driver's reach.
- Emergency response information on board.
- Hazmat employee training for the driver, with records, under Subpart H.
- Placards, if the quantity and class reach placarding thresholds, and once a load requires placards, the driver needs a commercial driver's license with a hazardous materials endorsement regardless of the vehicle's size.
Most states adopt the federal rules for intrastate driving, sometimes with their own variations; your state DOT or highway patrol commercial vehicle unit is who to ask. Separately, some tunnels and bridges restrict hazardous materials outright, including propane and other flammable gas, and those restrictions apply whether or not you are inside the exception. A crew that routes through one with a torch kit aboard is in violation of a local rule the federal exception does not touch.
Explosives and radioactive materials are not covered by this card. If a job ever involves either, read 173.6 and the class-specific rules directly before loading.
Worked example: a van that crossed the line by one jug
An HVAC and plumbing shop weighs one van's hazardous load on a shop platform scale. The figures below are that scale's readings, gross weight, rounded to the pound, and illustrative of a typical van rather than any particular product.
| Item | Class | Gross, lb |
|---|---|---|
| Refrigerant jug, new | 2.2 | 36 |
| Recovery cylinder, partly full | 2.2 | 48 |
| Nitrogen cylinder | 2.2 | 75 |
| Acetylene cylinder, small | 2.1 | 32 |
| Oxygen cylinder, small | 2.2 (oxidizer subsidiary) | 24 |
| Gasoline, 2 gallons in an approved can | 3, PG II | 16 |
| Muriatic acid, 1 gallon | 8, PG II | 10 |
| PVC primer and cement | 3, PG II | 4 |
| Aerosols, six cans | 2.1 | 6 |
The total is 36 + 48 + 75 + 32 + 24 + 16 + 10 + 4 + 6 = 251 lb, against the 440 lb vehicle cap, leaving 189 lb of headroom. Every package passes its own cap: the heaviest cylinder is 75 lb against 220 lb, and the 2 gallons of gasoline are about 7.6 L against 30 L.
The change. The van takes on a brazing job that needs a larger fuel supply, so the tech adds a 100 lb propane cylinder. Gross on the scale: 170 lb. Per package, it passes, 170 lb against the 220 lb cylinder cap. Per vehicle, 251 + 170 = 421 lb, still 19 lb under 440. Then the dispatcher adds a second new refrigerant jug for a two-system install the next morning: 421 + 36 = 457 lb, which is 17 lb over the cap.
Nothing about the van looks different. The load is still neat, still strapped, still labeled. But at 457 lb it is no longer a material of trade shipment, it is a hazardous materials shipment that needs shipping papers and a trained driver, and the shop has neither.
The decision. The shop had three ways out: move the second jug to another van, leave the propane at the shop and pick it up the morning of the brazing job, or move this van under the full rules, which means papers and Subpart H training for every driver who might take it. It chose the first and wrote a rule: any van carrying a cylinder over 100 lb gets its load reweighed before anything else is added.
What changes the answer. A shop that routinely needs more than 440 lb on one vehicle, such as a crew carrying several large propane cylinders for roofing torches, should stop managing the margin and train its drivers under the full rules once. And a state that varies the federal rule for intrastate trips can change the answer for a crew that never leaves the state; that is the question to put to your state DOT before relying on a margin as thin as this one.
References
- 49 CFR 171.8, definition of material of trade; 49 CFR 173.6, materials of trade exceptions (per-package limits, packaging, marking, driver knowledge, aggregate gross weight)
- 49 CFR Part 172 Subpart H, hazardous materials employee training, and the placarding requirements of Part 172 Subpart F (both apply once a load is outside the exception)
- 49 CFR 173.185, packaging for used and damaged lithium batteries
- See related: Loading the Van So Chemicals, Cylinders and Batteries Ride Safely; Universal Waste Explained for a Service Shop; Reading a Safety Data Sheet: the Sections That Matter