By Gordon Rousseau, Senior Technical Advisor    September, 2007

Some non-DOT inspectors and some carriers and tank operators have insisted in recent months that compliance with the portable tank requirements under Special Provision 274 of the IMO IMDG Code requires, in addition to the proper shipping name, the marking of the technical name for the material in the tank. According to the author, the technical name requirement in SP 274 applies only to documentation and package markings and does not apply to portable tank markings.

Synopsis: According to the IMDG Code (and the U.S. DOT regulations as well), is the marking of the shipping name on a portable tank required to be qualified by the addition of the technical name for the tank’s contents? Recent events reveal some confusion in applying the rules. The U. S. Coast Guard answers that the marking of the technical name on a portable tank is not required and explained its position in a recent letter, reproduced below for the convenience of our readers.

While the letter is clear, I nevertheless thought that it would be helpful to present the regulatory background that lead to the Coast Guard response. One can then recognize more easily that the letter from the Coast Guard is merely a declaration of what the regulations state. Interpretation of some vague regulation was not necessary in this case, as sometimes occurs with regulatory issues.

The DOT regulations specify in 49 CFR 172.326 that a portable tank in transportation must be marked with the proper shipping name of the hazardous material it contains. The proper shipping name is defined in § 171.8 as “the name of the hazardous material shown in Roman print (not italics) in § 172.101” of the hazardous materials regulations. Clearly, by definition, the phrase “proper shipping name” does not include the technical name.

When the DOT regulations prescribe marking of the proper shipping name and the technical name is to be added, the regulations specifically set forth the requirement for this additional marking. See, for example, § 172.301(b) where the technical name is required to be added to the proper shipping name marking on non-bulk packagings. Section 172.326, on the other hand, in setting forth portable tank marking requirements only prescribes the proper shipping name to be marked. It does not require the additional technical name to be shown. The DOT regulations in this instance are intended to mirror the IMDG Code requirements.

Some non-DOT inspectors and some carriers and tank operators apparently have been insisting in recent months that compliance with the portable tank requirements under Special Provision 274 of the IMO IMDG Code requires, in addition to the proper shipping name, the marking of the technical name for the material in the tank. Some shippers disagree. Hence, the need arose for a letter of clarification. Although nothing prohibits this additional marking, the IMDG Code does not require such a marking on portable tanks.

The technical name requirement in SP 274 of the IMDG Code, by its own wording, applies only to documentation and package markings. It does not apply to portable tank markings. A straightforward reading of the IMDG Special Provision 274 text itself makes this clear. It reads:

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