PHMSA Response Letter

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October 16, 2009

Mr. Matthew Louie
UPS Freight
6571 Washington Blvd.
Elkridge, MD 21075

Ref. No. 09-0132

Dear Mr. Louie:

This is in response to your electronic transmission requesting clarification of the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180) pertaining to training requirements. Specifically, you ask whether customers accepting shipments of hazardous materials must be trained if they return the hazardous material shipments to the original offeror.

Under the HMR, all hazardous materials employees (hazmat employees) must be trained. A hazmat employee is a person employed on a full-time, part-time, or temporary basis who in the course of his employment directly affects hazardous materials transportation safety. The term includes a person who loads, unloads, or handles hazardous materials or prepares hazardous materials for transportation. See § 171.8. If your employees prepare the return shipments for transportation back to the original offeror, including signing the certification statement on a shipping paper to certify that a package of hazardous material is being offered for transportation in accordance with the HMR, then the employees must be trained.

I hope this information is helpful. Please contact this office should you have additional questions.

Sincerely,

Hattie L. Mitchell
Chief, Regulatory Review and Reinvention
Office of Hazardous Materials Standards

§§ 171.1, Subpart H of Part 172, 171.8