Hazardous materials are cargo that can harm people or property if it spills, burns or leaks. The HazMat test asks how to read shipping papers, when to placard, and what to do at an incident.
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hazardous materials
небезпечні матеріали
HazMat
Substances that endanger health, safety or property when transported.
Think gasoline, propane, acids, explosives, poisons. The government lists them and sorts them into hazard classes. Special rules cover how they are packed, labeled, loaded and driven.
Tested:who may haul hazardous materials, where the papers must be kept, how the vehicle is placarded, and the driver's duties.
A diamond-shaped sign on a vehicle showing its cargo's hazard class.
Placards are the big diamond signs on the outside of a truck that tell police and firefighters what kind of danger is inside. A placarded vehicle needs at least four identical placards: front, rear and both sides. The shipper supplies them; the driver puts them up.
Tested:what placards are for, how many a vehicle needs, where they go, and what you must know to choose them.
транспортний засіб із табличками небезпечних вантажів
A vehicle carrying enough hazardous materials that it must display placards.
Once placards go on, extra rules follow. The driver needs the H endorsement. The truck must stop at railroad crossings, carry a fire extinguisher rated 10 B:C or more, and park away from crowds and open fire.
Tested:which rules apply to a placarded vehicle: fuelling, fire extinguisher rating, tire checks, railroad crossings, and who may drive it.
A category grouping hazardous materials by the type of danger they pose.
Federal rules sort hazardous materials into nine hazard classes, from explosives (Class 1) to miscellaneous (Class 9). Some classes split into divisions, like 2.1 flammable gas. The class decides the label and the placard.
Tested:how many hazard classes exist, which classes you may not smoke near, and which must not be loaded together.
A UN or NA code that identifies a hazardous material for responders.
Every regulated material has a four-digit number like UN1203. Firefighters look it up in the Emergency Response Guidebook. It appears on the shipping paper, the package, and on cargo tanks.
Tested:where the identification number must appear, who assigns it, and what the UN and NA prefixes mean.
The document that describes a shipment, including any hazardous materials on board.
Bills of lading and manifests are shipping papers. For hazmat, the paper must list the basic description and an emergency phone number. You must keep it where it can be found fast.
Tested:what a hazmat shipping paper must contain, in what order, how hazmat entries are marked, and where the driver keeps the papers.
The DOT guidebook (ERG) telling responders how to handle each hazardous material.
Firefighters and police open this orange book at a spill. They find the material by its name or its identification number. Many carriers keep a copy in every hazmat truck.
Tested:what ERG stands for and why the shipping paper's name and number must match it.
The amount of a hazardous substance whose spill must be reported.
Some chemicals are watched closely by the EPA. If one package holds the reportable quantity or more, the shipper marks RQ on the paper and package. Spill that much and you must report it.
Tested:what RQ stands for, where the letters appear, and what they tell the driver.
The H endorsement a CDL needs to haul materials that require placards.
You add it by passing the hazmat knowledge test. TSA also runs a background check before the state issues it. Without it you may not drive a placarded load, even with a CDL.
Tested:when a driver without the endorsement may still carry hazardous materials and what the endorsement test covers.
The federal list of every regulated material and its shipping details.
Shippers look up a material here first. Proper shipping names run down the table in alphabetical order. Other columns give the hazard class, identification number, packing group and labels.
Tested:how names are ordered in the table, which column holds the identification number, and what the Column 1 symbols mean.
