Three key take-aways from the VCA’s 2023 Dangerous Goods Seminar

Three key take-aways from the VCA’s 2023 Dangerous Goods Seminar

On 20th June 2023, we spent a day and a half in Birmingham, attending the Vehicle Certification Agency’s 2023 Dangerous Goods Seminar. It was a great opportunity to learn about evolving regulations and exceptions.

There were a range of talks, from regulation updates to law enforcement of dangerous goods and lithium battery safety. Here are three key takeaways:

1. Lithium Battery transport regulations will continue to see changes

To most in dangerous goods this is a given. As innovation in batteries continues, regulators have to respond to the new technology, making sure any transport is safe. As expected, a number of speakers covered safety in lithium battery transport and some of the new regulations and programmes being enacted at the regulator level. Key highlights were:

• The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is continuing to look at how to raise awareness and reduce undeclared Lithium Batteries making it to the acceptance point. They unveiled a new campaign ‘Batteries are Included” in May 2023, designed to highlight the risks of wrongly packed batteries
• The CAA also revealed a recent experiment, trialling using dogs to detect undeclared or mis-declared lithium batteries. The dog training programme was originally developed in France, and more details on that can be read here
• Internationally, there were indications there will be new risk mitigations within the air regulations for UN3481 (Lithium-ion Batteries contained in equipment) and state of charge restrictions for these batteries are being examined, with exemptions for medical devices on the cards.

The key take-away from these talks was watch this space. Changes are coming, and stakeholders involved in the transport of Lithium Batteries will likely see continued changes to shipping and checking of these dangerous goods in the coming years.

2. Compliance failures continue to pose challenges for safety

A number of talks examined the topic of safety and policing of compliance with the regulations. The talks from Dangerous Goods specialist police officers and government health and safety professionals covered incidents in recent years and learnings from them.

As you might expect there were some shocking examples along with a number of failures to comply with the regulations that should be really simple to avoid, such as making sure an ADR driver is carrying the correct paperwork for their load and has instructions in writing accessible.

It was particularly positive to hear more about the CDG Forum and the willingness from law enforcement to engage with and work more closely with the wider DGSA communities to help share best practice, and make sure appointed advisors are made aware of any police inquiries and part of the conversation.

3. The DVSA plans to promote the role of the DGSA and improve examination processes

At the seminar, delegates from the DVSA outlined their vision for the future role of Dangerous Goods Safety Advisers (DGSA) in the UK. New programmes to better educate the public on the role of DGSA’s were discussed, alongside updates on the plans for the SQA managed exam.

With the contract to oversee the exam up for tender, it’s possible we’ll see changes to how the exam operates in subsequent years, and it will be interesting to see what if anything a new provider will change. At the event we shared feedback on the need to increase the number of past papers available, along with the relevant answer sheets and mark schemes so that our delegates and trainers have better visibility into the marking policies for DGSA examiners.

This discussion will likely continue at the Dangerous Goods Training Advisory Panel (TAP) on 12th July where the DVSA will also be present to gather feedback.