Hazardous Materials Support

Overview

Shipium handles shipping the most common types of hazardous materials (hazmat), including:

  • Limited Quantities (LQ) (also known as ORMD, although this term was phased out in January 2021) products. Examples include small cosmetics and some healthcare products.
  • Lithium Ion Products. A common example is LiO batteries found in many electronics items, for which we simplify some details for you.
  • Generalized hazardous material. You can specify IATA/DOT details for any hazardous materials directly.

Specifying LQ/ORMD product for US domestic shipping

As a shortcut, we support adding a productDetails array entry of "limited_quantity". See the LQ example below.

Specifying hazardous materials

Hazardous materials information is provided within shipments as part of the orderItemProperties map, either using the standard Shipment construction or using the more popular Carrier and Method Selection with Label Single Call mechanism.

In addition to other item properties that are passed, such as productId and quantity, you can specify a set of hazmat-related properties in order to make sure that these products are properly handled at the carrier-level and during carrier selection.

There are two ways to do this:

  • For common hazmat classes, Shipium provides a shortcut mechanism and does much of the lookup on your behalf. The most common of these is the lithium ion classes for common electronics items, specified by property "category". The properties are shown in the table below in Pre-Configured Hazardous Materials Properties.

  • By specifying detailed hazardous materials properties using the properties defined in Defining Detailed Hazardous Materials Properties below and setting the category property to the value "defined".

Pre-configured Hazardous Materials properties

This table shows common hazmat classes covered by the ShipTime shortcut mechanism:

propertypropertyContentsparentProperty
"hazmat"boolean:
true if the item is HazMat.
false if it is not (default).
orderItems array element
"hazmatInfo"JSON object (map)
Contains information about this particular orderItems element.

See properties below that have a parentProperty of hazmatInfo for details.
orderItems array element
"category"HazMat category for this orderItems element. Values are:
contains_lithium_ion
contains_lithium_metal
lithium_ion_battery_only
lithium_metal_battery_only
packaged_lithium_ion
packaged_lithium_metal
hazmatInfo
"quantity"float value
The quantity of HazMat material in this orderItems element in units of quantityType of quantityUnits.
hazmatInfo
"quantityType"string enumeration
The type of quantity of hazardous material. One of the following values:
gross
net
hazmatInfo
"quantityUnits"string enumeration
The units of measure for the quantity of hazardous material specified.
Values are:
g
kg
lb
oz
ml
l
hazmatInfo

Defining detailed Hazardous Materials properties

If your shipment contains hazardous materials that cannot be included using the above pre-configured interface, use the following properties to specify the details and set the category property to the value "defined".

propertypropertyContentsparentProperty
"hazmat"boolean:
true if the item is hazmat.
false if it is not (default).
orderItems array element
"hazmatInfo"JSON object (map)
Contains information pertaining to this particular orderItems element.

See properties below with a parentProperty of hazmatInfo for details.
orderItems array element
"category"string enumeration
To specify detailed information, set this to "defined".
hazmatInfo
"hazmatId"string
The IATA or DOT regulatory identifier for the commodity as appropriate.
hazmatInfo
"containerType"string enumeration
One of the following strings for the material that the hazardous material is packaged in:
fiberboard_box
wooden_box
plastic_jerrican
metal_box
steel_drum
other
plastic_box
plastic_drum
styrofoam_box
cylinder
envirotainer
plywood_box
aluminum_drum
aluminum_cylinder
plastic_pail
plywood_drum
fiber_drum
steel_jerrican
aluminum_jerrican
steel_box
carton
aluminum_box
hazmatInfo
"packingGroup"default
i
ii
iii
hazmatInfo
"properShippingName"string
The proper shipping name that is associated with the specified hazmatId.
hazmatInfo
"hazardClass"string enumeration
One of the following hazard classes:
class_1_explosive
class_2_flammable_gas
class_3_flammable_liquid
class_4_flammable_solid
class_5_organic_peroxide
class_6_poisonous_material
class_7_radioactive
class_8_corrosive_material
class_9_miscellaneous
hazmatInfo
"subsidiaryClasses"array of strings
The appropriate IATA/DOT subsidiary classes associated with the material and the hazard class.
hazmatInfo
"quantity"float value
The quantity of HazMat material in this orderItems element in units of quantityType of quantityUnits.
hazmatInfo
"quantityType"string enumeration
The type of quantity of hazardous material. One of the following values:
gross
net
hazmatInfo
"quantityUnits"string enumeration
The units of measure for the quantity of hazardous material specified.
Values are:
g
kg
lb
oz
ml
l
hazmatInfo

Examples

Non-Hazardous Materials example

This example shows a sample orderItems entry for a shipment which contains no hazmat items:

"orderItemQuantities": [
  {
        "productId": "PRODUCTID001",
        "quantity": 1
    },
  {
        "productId": "PRODUCTID002",
        "quantity": 2
    },
]

Hazardous Materials example: Limited quantity/ORMD

This example shows an orderItems entry for a shipment which contains two items: one with no hazmat properties and one ORMD/LQ product:

"orderItemQuantities": [
  {
        "productId": "PRODUCTID001",
        "quantity": 1
    },
  {
        "productId": "PRODUCTID002",
        "quantity": 2,
        "productDetails": ["limited_quantity"]
    }
]

Hazardous Materials example: Product containing lithium ion batteries

This example shows an orderItems entry for a shipment which contains two items: one with no hazmat properties and one which contains a lithium ion battery:

"orderItemQuantities": [
    {
        "productId": "PRODUCTID001",
        "quantity": 1
    },
    {
        "hazmat": true,
        "hazmatInfo": {
            "category": "contains_lithium_ion",
            "quantity": 1.0,
            "quantityType": "gross",
            "quantityUnits": "g"
        },
        "productId": "PRODUCTIDHAZ1",
        "quantity": 3
    }
],

Hazardous Materials example: Detailed Hazardous Materials properties

This example shows an orderItems entry for a shipment containing two items, one containing chromic acid solution and one with no hazmat properties. Note that category is set to "defined":

"orderItemQuantities": [
    {
        "hazmat": true,
        "hazmatInfo": {
            "category": "defined",
            "hazmatId": "UN1755",
            "containerType": "aluminum_jerrican",
            "packingGroup": "ii",
            "properShippingName": "Chromic Acid Solution",
            "hazardClass": "8",
            "subsidiaryClasses": [
                "8.1"
            ],
            "quantity": 5.0,
            "quantityType": "net",
            "quantityUnits": "l"
        },
        "productDetails": [],
        "productId": "PRODUCTID001",
        "quantity": 3
    }
],