"Measures for the Administration of Road Transportation Safety of Dangerous Goods" will formally come into force on January 1, 2020

The "Measures for the Administration of Road Transportation Safety of Dangerous Goods (Exposure Draft)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Exposure Draft") was issued on February 15, 2019. Nine months later, on November 25, 2019, the Ministry of Transport, in conjunction with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Emergency Management and State Administration for Market Regulation, released the formal edition "Measures for the Administration of Road Transportation Safety of Dangerous Goods" (Order No.29 [2019] of the Ministry of Transport) (hereinafter referred to as "Measures"), which will come into force on January 1, 2020.

The "Measures", as ministerial rules with higher legal effect of the "Regulations Concerning Road Transportation of Dangerous Goods" (JT/T617) issued by the Ministry of Transport in September 2018, provided detailed legal basis to the transportation, packaging, handling and other problems faced by road transport of dangerous goods. The formal implementation of the "Measures" will mean the better enforcement of the "JT/T617 Standard" in road transport.

Compared with the "Exposure Draft", the "Measures" haven't changed much in the essential contents. However, it gives out more standard expression and more detailed penalty provisions. After the formal implementation of the "Measures", consignors will bear much more responsibilities in the road transportation. Consignors shall inform carriers of the classification, labeling, consignment list of dangerous goods mentioned in the "JT/T617 Standard". The packaging, labeling, package testing, maximum quantity and other related contents of dangerous goods which can apply exceptional quantity / limited quantity, shall also meet relevant requirements. In addition, dangerous goods that meet the transport conditions of exceptional quantity or limited quantity are expected to be exempted (i.e. allowed to be transported as a kind of special ordinary good) from the requirements related to road transport of dangerous goods, such as the qualification of dangerous goods transport vehicles. This kind of low-cost transportation compliance mode has a lot of benefits for reagent enterprises, and enterprises related to small packaging chemicals and consumer goods.