Dangerous Goods
Dangerous goods are substances and articles that can pose risks to people, the environment or property during transport and whose shipment is therefore legally regulated – through classification, marking, packaging and documentation under ADR.
Dangerous goods are substances and articles that can pose risks to public safety, to the life and health of people, and to the environment and property during transport. Because an accident involving such goods would have serious consequences, their transport is strictly regulated in Germany, Austria and Switzerland – on the road primarily through the ADR (European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road), supplemented nationally by the Dangerous Goods Transport Act (GGBefG) and the Ordinance on the Transport of Dangerous Goods by Road, Rail and Inland Waterway (GGVSEB).
Whether an item is a dangerous good does not depend on the quantity in stock but on its material properties: flammability, toxicity, corrosiveness, environmental hazard or, for example, the design of a battery. Typical examples are lithium-ion batteries, paints and varnishes, aerosol cans, perfume, cleaning agents, disinfectants or fertilizers. For retail and especially e-commerce, this means that even a single power bank in the assortment can trigger marking, packaging and documentation obligations that the ERP system must map.
At a glance
- Dangerous goods = transport context; hazardous substance = handling/storage – do not confuse
- Legal framework: ADR (road), RID (rail), IMDG (sea), IATA-DGR (air)
- Nine classes of dangerous goods with UN number, packing group and hazard labels
- Marking: UN number, hazard labels, transport document, packaging codes
- ADR exemptions (e.g. 1,000-point rule, limited quantities/LQ) reduce the effort
What legally defines a dangerous good
Legally, a substance is a dangerous good when it is assigned to a class of dangerous goods in the relevant regulations and given a UN number. The ADR groups dangerous goods into nine classes: explosive substances (1), gases (2), flammable liquids (3), flammable solids (4), oxidizing substances and organic peroxides (5), toxic and infectious substances (6), radioactive material (7), corrosive substances (8) and miscellaneous dangerous substances and articles (9), which include lithium batteries and environmentally hazardous substances, among others.
Each entry has a four-digit UN number (for example UN 3480 for lithium-ion batteries) and an official designation. In addition, the packing group (I high, II medium, III low) defines the degree of danger within a class and determines how robustly the goods must be packaged.
Dangerous goods vs. hazardous substances
The two terms are often confused but refer to different situations. Dangerous goods relate to the transport of a substance and are governed by ADR, RID, IMDG or IATA. A hazardous substance relates to storage, handling and use in the workplace and is governed by the Hazardous Substances Ordinance (GefStoffV) and the CLP Regulation. One and the same substance can be both – a cleaning concentrate is a hazardous substance on the shelf and a dangerous good on the truck, each with its own marking and documentation systems.
Marking, packaging and documentation
The visible side of dangerous goods law is the marking. Packages carry hazard labels (diamond-shaped symbols), the UN number and – for environmentally hazardous substances – the fish-and-tree symbol. Packaging must be type-approved and carry a UN packaging code that encodes the design, test level and permitted packing group. For lithium batteries, special battery marks and, in some cases, handling instructions are added.
A transport document is generally required for every shipment, stating the UN number, official designation, class of dangerous goods, packing group, number and type of packages and the total quantity. Depending on quantity and class, written instructions, trained drivers with an ADR certificate and an appointed dangerous goods safety adviser also become necessary. Errors in these details lead to fines and, in the worst case, to the carrier rejecting the shipment.
Exemptions and limited quantities
Not every shipment triggers the full set of obligations. The 1,000-point rule (ADR 1.1.3.6) allows smaller transport quantities with reduced requirements by weighting quantities per transport category with factors and adding them up. The limited quantities (LQ) rule largely exempts small inner packagings below defined limits from marking – identifiable by the black-and-white LQ diamond symbol. For mail-order retail, these exemptions are central because they make many consumer products economically shippable.
Why dangerous goods matter for retail and e-commerce
For shippers, dangerous goods are above all a matter of risk and cost. Anyone who ships without correct classification, marking and papers is liable for damages and risks substantial fines – the responsibility cannot be fully delegated to the carrier. At the same time, parcel services and marketplaces increasingly demand clean dangerous goods data: Amazon, for example, requires a safety data sheet and exemption sheets for many items before they may be stored in FBA or even listed at all.
In practice, the dangerous goods logic often determines the assortment and shipping method. Certain goods may not be shipped by air freight or only with expensive surcharges, others are excluded from standard parcel shipping. Anyone who does not map these rules in the order process sells items that can only be delivered with great effort afterwards, or not at all.
Dangerous goods in the ERP system
An ERP system anchors the dangerous goods properties in the item master: UN number, class of dangerous goods, packing group, net quantity per sales unit and details of exemptions such as LQ. From this master data, the system derives the correct next steps during order processing – from the matching shipping label and hazard label to the selection of permitted carriers and the automatically generated transport document.
Especially valuable is automatic quantity aggregation: because exemption limits refer to the entire shipment, the system must check for each order whether the sum of several dangerous goods line items exceeds the LQ or 1,000-point threshold. Pure standard software often maps this only rudimentarily; many retailers therefore add specialized dangerous goods modules or connect service providers and shipping software via an interface that handle the checking and document generation.
Data maintenance as a success factor
Dangerous goods handling is only as good as the data quality in the item master. If a battery lacks a UN number or the net quantity is entered incorrectly, the automatic checks do not take effect and the shipment is declared incorrectly or not at all. A clean, well-maintained classification – ideally with the safety data sheet as the source – is therefore the foundation of any reliable dangerous goods logistics in the ERP.
DACH specifics
The ADR applies equally as an international agreement in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, yet the national implementation differs. In Germany, GGBefG and GGVSEB regulate the details, oversight lies with the federal states, and above certain quantities a dangerous goods safety adviser must be appointed. Austria implements the ADR through the Dangerous Goods Transport Act (GGBG), Switzerland through the SDR (Ordinance on the Transport of Dangerous Goods by Road).
For cross-border shipments within the DACH region, it is relevant that Switzerland is not an EU member: customs clearance and, in some cases, differing national regulations come into play. Anyone who regularly ships between the three countries should keep an eye on the respective competent authority and the current ADR edition, as the agreement is updated every two years.
Example
Example: power banks in the online shop
An e-commerce retailer adds power banks with lithium-ion batteries to its assortment. Each battery falls under the ADR as UN 3480 (class 9). In the ERP, the UN number, class, watt-hours and net weight are stored in the item master, and the item is flagged as a dangerous good.
If a customer orders a single power bank, the shipment stays below the LQ limit: the system selects the limited-quantities marking and the permitted parcel service. However, if a B2B customer orders 40 units, the total quantity exceeds the exemption – the ERP automatically generates a complete transport document, hides non-permitted shipping methods and points out the required ADR obligations. In this way, the software prevents a non-declarable shipment from entering dispatch at all.
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