Welcome to Shipping Solutions export documentation and compliance software. If your item is considered a dangerous good (DG) by either the International Air Transport Association (IATA) or the International Maritime Organization (IMO), you can prepare the proper documents for your shipment using Shipping Solutions. So let’s get started!

To save the most time when creating a DG shipment, start by going to the Databases tab, Products screen. Find the product where you want to enter DG information or click Add New Product. I’ll give my new product a Product ID and Description and then click the Dangerous Goods tab. The screen is divided into IATA and IMO sections.

In the IATA section, click the Lookup DG button to open the IATA Database of Dangerous Goods. You can search by UN Number or Proper Shipping Name. Find the proper entry for your item and click Select. The UN Number, Proper Shipping Name, Classification and Packing Group will fill in on the DG tab.

Type directly in the Type of Packing box or click the Builder button for help in entering your packing information. Choose your Material and Container from the drop-down lists. Enter the amount in the containers in the Value box and choose the Units from the drop-down list.

Click the plus button to add this information to the description. Use the degree button to add that symbol to a flash point, if needed. Click OK to return to the DG tab.

If your DG item requires a technical name following the Proper Shipping Name, enter it here. Do not include the required parenthesis because Shipping Solutions will automatically add them.

Although the list of Dangerous Goods for IMO is slightly different than IATA, a button is provided to copy the IATA information to the IMO section. You may need to edit the data if it is different for IMO than for IATA.

Use the Additional Description box to enter any information that you want to follow the Packing Group. This information could include a flash point, so a degree button is provided to add that symbol.

If you know the values, enter the Net Weight/Volume, Gross Weight/Volume and Cubic Meters. You will be able to display either Net Weight or Cubic Meters along with Gross Weight on the IMO documents.

You can also import your product data, but that is covered in a separate video. Save this product.

If you have products that include DG items that are not listed separately on your commercial invoice, you can list them as sub products. For example, a car battery needs to be listed on the dangerous goods document but may not be listed separately on your invoice. To add a sub product to an item, first enter the sub product as a product in the Product Database. And I have already added the car battery as a separate product.

Then go to the main product, click the Dangerous Goods tab, and then click the Manage Sub Products button. On this screen search for the sub product. Click Add and the item will be copied to the lower grid showing that it is a sub product to this product. Repeat the process for as many sub products as needed. Click Close.

The sub products will appear in a grid at the bottom of the IATA and IMO sections. You must enter the sub products separately for IATA and IMO. Save and Close.

Now that you have your DG information entered in the Products Database, you are ready to create a specific shipment. Go to the EZ Start tab and create your shipment by clicking the New button or using the Copy button to copy a previous shipment. Create your shipment as you normally do, including entering your products on the Product Detail screen.

Click the Dangerous Goods tab. If you entered DG information for your products on the Databases tab as we just did, the DG information will fill in. If not, click Lookup DG to search for your item in the IATA Database of Dangerous Goods.

Since your shipment is either an air or ocean shipment, but not both, you do not need to complete both the IATA and IMO sections of this screen.

If this is an air shipment, enter the Quantity here. Since this could be different than the commercial invoice quantity, it is not copied from the Invoices tab.

If you did not enter your packing information or technical name in the Product Database, you can enter it here if required.

The Include on IATA check box will default to checked. If for some reason you do not want to include this item on your Dangerous Goods IATA document, uncheck the box.

For an ocean shipment enter the Quantity here. Again, since this could be different than the commercial invoice quantity, it is not copied from the Invoices tab.

If you did not enter your packing information, technical name, additional description or weights in the Product Database, you can enter them here.

The Include on IMO check box will default to checked. If for some reason you do not want to include this item on your Dangerous Goods IMO document, uncheck the box. Save and Close this screen.

Now, click the plus sign next to Dangerous Goods. If you are shipping via air, click the Dangerous Goods IATA screen, and if you are shipping via ocean, truck or rail, click the Dangerous Goods IMO screen. First, we’ll look at the IATA screen.

Complete the fields in the top section of the screen including a 24-Hour Phone which is required to be monitored at all times while hazardous material is in transport, and a check box to indicate if the shipment contains radioactive material. If you need to add additional handling information you can choose a saved phrase from the drop-down list or just type in the box.

Your dangerous goods items will be listed here and will include products from the EZ Start-Product Detail screen along with any sub products. Re-order the items by clicking in the first column. Right click to edit or add an item, which will take you to the IATA Product Detail screen.

This screen first shows you information from the IATA Database of Dangerous Goods including the packing instructions and maximum net quantity per package for limited quantities, passenger & cargo planes and cargo planes only. Special provisions from the IATA Database of Dangerous Goods are also displayed.

If you have already stored your DG information in the Products database, it will automatically populate on this screen when you add the product to your shipment. If you are adding a new item, click Lookup DG to search for your item in the IATA Database of Dangerous Goods. If any of the basic information is missing, you can fill it in here. In addition, there are two additional boxes because some DG items require words in front of or following the Proper Shipping Name (PSN), and those words can be entered in the PSN Qualifying Prefix and PSN Qualifying Suffix box.

For example, WASTE must precede your PSN if the DG item is being transported for disposal, and “stabilized” must follow the PSN if the DG item must be stabilized for transport. There are many other possible prefixes and suffixes. Packing Instructions can be taken from the information shown at the top of the screen.

Click Save and Close to return to the IATA screen. There are two ways to display your items on the IATA documents. The first is in columns as shown in the grid on the IATA screen. The second is with double slashes between the fields with no columns shown. To get an idea of how your items will look in the non-columnar format, click the Format Computerized button. To return to the column view, click Format Manual.

If you have unchecked the Include on IATA box for some of your items, you can display all items by checking the Show Excluded box. This may be helpful in locating items that have been entered but seem to be missing.

For air shipments, you are now ready to print the documents, but before we look at the list of documents, let’s complete the IMO screen as if this were an ocean shipment.

Complete the fields in the top and bottom sections of the screen including additional handling that can be selected from the drop-down list and a 24-hr phone number.

Your dangerous goods items will be listed in the grid and will include products from the EZ Start-Product Detail screen along with any sub products. Re-order the items by clicking in the first column. Right click to edit or add an item, which will take you to the IMO Product Detail screen.

If you have already entered your DG information, it will automatically populate on this screen when you add the product to your shipment. If not, click Lookup DG to search for your item in the IATA Database of Dangerous Goods. The list of dangerous goods is slightly different for IMO than it is for IATA, so you may need to edit these for IMO shipments.

If any of the information is missing you can fill it in on this screen. Click Save and Close to return to the IMO screen.

If you have unchecked the Include on IMO box for some of your items, you can display all items by checking the Show Excluded box. This may be helpful in locating items that have been entered but seem to be missing. Save and Close.

You are now ready to print the documents needed for your dangerous goods shipment. On the EZ Start tab, click the Preview/Print/Email button. I have narrowed my document list to just show the DG documents. The IMO is available as a full document or with just the data that can be printed on a pre-printed form. Here is the full document.

There are more choices with the IATA. First, it can be printed in the format with columns or without columns and just slashes dividing the data. Then it can be printed as a full document, data only that can be printed on a pre-printed form, or with everything except the red border. Here is the full document with the columns.

Some customizations can be made to the Dangerous Goods documents. Go to the Tools tab, Customize Documents screen, and select the document you want to modify. On the IMO screens you can choose whether to display the Net Weight/Volume or Cubic Meters. On most of the documents you can change the field labels.

Proper training is required under federal and state regulations to handle dangerous goods and hazardous materials. All persons and entities must comply with all federal regulations. InterMart provides these instructions to assist properly trained shippers. The materials provided by Shipping Solutions in no way alter, satisfy or influence any federal or state requirements. Thank you for watching!