One of the most difficult categories of cargo during international transport is chemical products. There are a number of obvious and non-obvious difficulties that must be taken into account in order to load and successfully deliver the goods.
Obvious difficulties relate primarily to equipping the vehicle and its actual condition.
Naturally, when transporting dangerous goods, you need a truck with an ADR kit and a driver with permission is required to wear protective clothing. This comprises shoes (including safety glasses, gloves, a respirator, etc.). In addition, many consignors put forward internal safety requirements for loading and transportation. For example, only curtain semi-trailers, or semi-trailers with special cargo fastening/stability systems.
It is much more interesting to talk about the unobvious difficulties in loading and transporting such products. These are specific conditions that customers often do not fully understand, and where the only thing that can help is the specific experience of logisticians and drivers.
For instance, passing safety tests at some consignor’s plants. It would seem quite a standard procedure. If not for one these tests should be taken only in English/German or French (moreover, in order to successfully pass them you need a pretty decent level of language proficiency). That being said, it’s extremely difficult to find a driver who can freely speak one of these languages, so experienced logisticians should take care to call a specialized translator in advance to the place of loading.
At some loading points, a certain number of fastening belts with a working load of at least a certain daN value is required. The non-obvious difficulty here, is that at the loading point you need to prove the workload of these belts, for which you need a readable label. Even with the perfect appearance of these belts, they can be rejected at the place of loading.
Good vehicle condition is again a standard requirement. Nontheless at some chemical consignor’s plants, there are internal standards for the condition of tracks that must be taken into account with offering vehicles (from the tread depth on tyres to the lack of advertising for food or drinks on the tent of the semi-trailer).
Summarizing all of the above, if it is necessary to carry out the transportation of chemical products, you need to contact a company that has similar specific experience. Their specialists should be well aware of what requirements and difficulties they will encounter. That’s right to a company like Ganex 🙂
Maksym Kolokolusha
Chief Commercial Officer
Ganex Group