ChemRegs Newsletter – August 2019

When do you need a DGSA?

August is a quiet month with regards to chemical and dangerous goods news, so we thought we would write an article on a question we get asked a lot i.e.

“What is a ‘secondary activity’ in relation to appointing a Dangerous Goods Safety Adviser (DGSA)?”

There are various well known exemptions in relation to the application of the transport of dangerous goods by road regulations (ADR).

These are mainly to be found in ADR 1.1.3 and include exemptions related to the nature of the transport operation, such as the private use of vehicles or the carriage undertaken by enterprises which is “ancillary to their main activity” e.g. deliveries to or from building or civil engineering sites etc.

Another example is exemptions related to “quantities carried per transport unit”, or the ‘limited or small load provisions’ as they are commonly known. These allow dangerous goods to be carried (usually in UN approved packaging with the appropriate marks and labels) without application of all of the ADR provisions, including the need for an ADR driver certificate or to appoint a DGSA.

The limited load exemptions apply based on the amount carried per transport unit and the amounts allowed are calculated according to the transport category assigned to a particular UN Number and Packing Group:

• Transport Category 0 (not allowed to use the exemptions)
• Transport Category 1 (only up to 20 kg/litres per transport unit)
• Transport Category 2 (only up to 333 kg/litres per transport unit)
• Transport Category 3 (only up to 1000 kg/litres per transport unit)
• Transport Category 4 (unlimited)

Other exemptions are related to special provisions, or to dangerous goods packed in limited or excepted quantities.

However, apart from the exemptions to ADR itself, there are also exemptions from the duty to appoint a DGSA.

ADR 2019 Volume 1 at 1.8.3 requires those involved in carriage of dangerous goods to appoint a DGSA.

“Each undertaking, the activities of which include the consigning or the carriage of dangerous goods by road, or the related packing, loading, filling or unloading shall appoint one or more safety advisers for the carriage of dangerous goods, responsible for helping to prevent the risks inherent in such activities with regard to persons, property and the environment.”

However, this section also gives a couple of exemptions from the need to appoint a DGSA i.e. to those businesses:

(a) The activities of which concern quantities in each transport unit not exceeding those referred to in 1.1.3.6 (limited/small loads), 1.7.1.4 (some radioactive materials) and in Chapters 3.3 (special provisions), 3.4 (limited quantities) and 3.5 (excepted quantities).

(b) The main or secondary activities of which are not the carriage or the related packing, filling, loading or unloading of dangerous goods but which occasionally engage in the national carriage or the related packing, filling, loading or unloading of dangerous goods posing little danger or risk of pollution.

It is the “main or secondary activities” exemption that is the least well known and the area we get asked about the most, as this can get interpreted in many ways.

According to the HSE, “main or secondary activity” should be interpreted as the main or secondary purpose of the business. That is, companies whose business is not the transport of dangerous goods directly, but whose activities happen to involve such transport will normally not require to appoint a DGSA.

Examples given by the HSE include:

• Construction companies taking dangerous goods to and from sites would not be regarded as having transport of dangerous goods as either a main or secondary activity
• Repair organisations that occasionally recover vehicles which are still loaded with dangerous goods. For routine services, it would be expected that the vehicles would be unloaded and where applicable cleaned and purged.

Carriers, delivery companies, freight forwarders etc are not within this category as the carriage of dangerous goods is often their main or secondary activity.

This exemption is further qualified by the terms “occasionally engage” and “little danger or risk of pollution”, which pose further practical difficulties of interpretation.

However, the HSE  states that”occasionally” should be interpreted as 1 to 2 journeys per month. If more frequent deliveries are required this should not be regarded as occasional.

This might be better served by giving a practical example.

Your company designs and builds boats and has created a new cutting edge style of boat. The boat is built and delivered but after a few weeks the boat starts to wrinkle and crack.

It is found that the gel coat has not cured properly and needs a special solvent to cure it.

The strong solvent is a flammable liquid and is supplied in 20 litre jerricans.

The size of the containers means the limited quantity and excepted quantity provisions are not able to be used, and the amount is too much to send per transport unit to use the limited load provisions, so the solvent will have to go with an ADR driver.

But will you need to appoint a DGSA?

If you have ‘bought in’ the solvent just to solve this one customers problem, then no, you will not need to appoint a DGSA as you are in the boat building business and not the solvent business and therefore the supply of the solvent is not the main or secondary activity of the company and this is is covered by “occasionally engage”

However, if the solvent is a ‘hit’ and the decision was made to sell the solvent to all customers, then the supply of the solvent would become a secondary activity and so you would then be required to appoint a DGSA.

In practice, you often to need to contact a DGSA to find out if you need a DGSA!