Dangerous goods are cargoes posing safety risks in transport, classified under the IMDG Code into nine hazard classes: explosives, gases, flammable liquids and solids, oxidisers, toxics, radioactive material, corrosives, and miscellaneous. Each shipment carries a UN number, proper shipping name, and class-driven rules.
The classification drives everything: packaging and labelling, the shipper’s DG declaration, segregation from incompatible cargo, stowage position aboard, and whether a port or service accepts the commodity at all. Carriers screen DG bookings individually and refuse mis-declared or excluded cargo.
Mis-declaration is the industry’s recurring nightmare, implicated in serious vessel fires; enforcement includes container inspections and heavy penalties. DG cargo also runs earlier cut-offs and restricted terminal windows, so its timeline is tighter at both ends.
DG shipments benefit from closer tracking precisely because their handling is constrained: fewer vessels accept them, rollovers are harder to recover, and terminals may hold them in special areas that change dwell behaviour. Watching the booking’s load and connection events in TrackingMCP gives early warning where re-planning options are thinnest.
Dangerous goods are cargoes posing safety risks in transport, classified under the IMDG Code into nine hazard classes: explosives, gases, flammable liquids and solids, oxidisers, toxics, radioactive material, corrosives, and miscellaneous. Each shipment carries a UN number, proper shipping name, and class-driven rules.
The shipper’s signed document declaring the goods’ UN number, proper shipping name, class, packing group, and packaging compliance. It is the legal basis on which the carrier accepts and stows the cargo.
Class exclusions on the service, port restrictions along the rotation, segregation limits with cargo already booked, or doubts about the declaration. Acceptance is per voyage, not per commodity in general.
Track DG bookings closely →
Carrier acceptance context →
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