This paper outlines the chemical industry's policy with respect to responsible care as applied to the transport of dangerous goods by road. The responsible care initiative requires companies to demonstrate their commitment to improve all aspects of performance which relate to protection of health, safety and the environment. In the case of transport this requires ongoing, formal safety programmes which cover: (a) The responsibilities of the parties involved; (b) Risk reduction; (c) Selection and monitoring of contractors; (d) Specification of equipment; (e) Training of managers, supervisors and drivers; (f) Control of operations; (g) Auditing; (h) Incident reporting and investigation; and (i) Emergency response. The paper describes the way in which these management programmes operate in practice in the chemical industry, and is based largely on the content of the UK Chemical Industries Association Code. It highlights particularly the special problems of applying these procedures to inter-modal movements and gives a view on the way inter-modal practices need to develop in the future. It states briefly the results of recent governmental studies of dangerous goods distribution and relates these to the industry's current practices.
Abstract