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Hazardous Material Shipping

Shipping of hazardous materials is serious business. The U.S. Dept of Transportation (DOT) has set strict standards for these shipments in terms of training, proper paperwork, labels, placards and packaging. It is a challenge for occasional shippers to do this right. It is not uncommon to have shipments returned by transport companies who scrutinize shipments very closely.

If you ship hazardous materials regularly, you should attend one of our regular training sessions to get the appropriate training. The most common shippers of hazardous materials are clinical or research laboratory personnel involved in shipping infectious or biological specimens to other laboratories or colleagues for testing. For more information about see training for biological specimens.

See Training Fact Sheet - Hazardous Material Transportation .

To make this work smoothly and keep you and the University free of legal liability, U Stores and DEHS have partnered to put a system in place on the Twin Cities Campus for shipping hazardous materials off-campus. Fill out the Hazardous Material Transportation - Paperwork form. DEHS specialists will review the information, follow up with questions, as needed. Then DEHS or U Stores will collect it from your location and ship it to the Health Sciences Shipping Dock. There trained DEHS or U Stores personnel will package and prepare the paperwork for proper shipment.

Be aware that compliance is not without its costs! Carriers typically add a surcharge for hazardous materials on top of their standard shipping fee. U Stores will charge for proper packaging, if needed, as well as for collection and handling.