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Sep 1, 2005 12:00 PM

Responding to truck and rail carrier concerns about definitions of a “person who offers or offeror” hazardous materials for transportation, the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) has clarified a final rule. PHMSA now defines the person or offer to mean any person who performs or is responsible for performing any pre-transportation function required by the hazmat rule, or who tenders or makes the hazardous material available to a carrier for transportation in commerce, according to information published July 28 in the Federal Register. The rule (49 CFR Part 171) becomes effective Oct 1, 2005.

A carrier is not an offeror when it performs a function as a condition of accepting a hazardous material for transportation in commerce or when it transfers a hazardous material to another carrier for continued transportation without performing a pre-transportation function. PHMSA is clarifying that there may be more than one offeror of a hazardous material, and that each offeror is responsible only for the specific pre-transportation functions that it performs or is required to perform.

The rule also clarifies that each offeror or carrier may rely on information provided by a previous offeror or carrier unless the offeror or carrier knows or, a reasonable person acting in the circumstances and exercising reasonable care, would have knowledge that the information provided is incorrect.