Canada Road & Rail Transport - Information Required on a Shipping Document

A shipping document must include certain information, including the name and address of the consignor's place of business in Canada and the date the shipping document or an electronic copy of it was prepared or was first given to a carrier.

It must also include the description of each of the dangerous goods, in the following order:

• The UN number
• The shipping name and, immediately after the shipping name unless it is already part of it, the technical name, in parentheses, of at least one of the most dangerous substances that predominantly contributes to the hazard or hazards posed by the dangerous goods; and (for a liquefied petroleum gas that has not been odorized) the words "Not Odourized" or "Not Odorized" or "Sans odorisant"
• The primary class
• For dangerous goods with a primary class of Class 1, Explosives, the compatibility group letter following the primary class
• The subsidiary class or classes, in parentheses, which may be shown as a number only or under the heading "subsidiary class" or "classe subsidiaire" or following the words "subsidiary class" or "classe subsidiaire"
• The packing group Roman numeral, which may be shown under the heading "PG" or "GE" or following the letters "PG" or "GE" or following the words "Packing Group" or "Groupe d'emballage"
• For dangerous goods that are subject to Special Provision 23, the words " inhalation hazard" or their French translation

A shipping document must also include, for each shipping name, the quantity of dangerous goods and the unit of measure used to express the quantity. On a shipping document prepared in Canada, this must be a unit of measure included in the International System of Units (SI) or a unit of measure acceptable for use under the SI system. An exception is made for dangerous goods included in Class 1, Explosives, for which the quantity must be expressed in net explosives quantity or, for explosives with UN numbers subject to Special Provision 85 or 86, in number of articles or net explosives quantity.

For dangerous goods in one or more small means of containment that require a label to be displayed on them in accordance with Part 4, Dangerous Goods Safety Marks, the shipping document should include the number of small means of containment for each shipping name. If the quantity of dangerous goods required on a shipping document or the number of small means of containment required changes during transport, the carrier must show those changes on the shipping document or on a document attached to the shipping document.

Finally, the shipping document must include the words "24-Hour Number" or "Numéro 24 heures," or an abbreviation of these words, followed by a telephone number at which the consignor can be reached immediately for technical information about the dangerous goods in transport.

To learn more about Transporting Dangerous Goods in Canada visit our Transporting Dangerous Good by Road & Rail Online Training web page.