DOT reviews paperless hazmat data sharing

DOT reviews paperless hazmat data sharing    The U.S. Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) will seek comment on an upcoming proof-of-concept study on the use of electronic data sharing in place of paper-based hazardous materials shipping documents.
   The agency will hold a two-day public meeting in Washington on Oct. 13-14 at DOT headquarters where it hopes to receive feedback from a variety of parties, including hazmat shippers, carriers, freight forwarders, emergency responders, technology providers and other government agencies.
   The goal of the HM-ACCESS initiative is to identify and eliminate barriers to the use of paperless tracking and hazmat communications technologies, which would:
   ' Improve the availability and accuracy of hazardous information.
   ' Improve the speed by which information is available to emergency responders when incidents occur.
   ' Allow U.S. companies to compete more effectively in the global economy by using the best tools available.
   “Paper-based communications is slow, limits the information available, and is fraught with the potential for error,” PHMSA said in a Federal Register notice. “Inefficiencies and errors in the handling of hazardous materials produce increased risk throughout the transport chain due to increased storage time, mishandling and ineffective or inaccurate hazardous communications.
   “Moreover, paper-based communication may be least effective at the very time when hazardous communication is most critical — in the immediate aftermath of a transportation incident,” the agency said.
   To learn more about the upcoming PHMSA meeting, access the Federal Register notice.