Advisory: Declaring the Transportation of Anhydrous Ammonia and Class 3, Flammable Liquids When Filing FMCSA Registration.

Issue:

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) of the United States

Department of Transportation (USDOT) is issuing this notification to advise the

motor carrier industry of the discontinued use of the fields on FMCSA

registration forms that refer to Division 2.2 anhydrous ammonia, Class 3A and

Class 3B. These entries are no longer relevant due to the Federal Hazardous

Materials Regulations (HMR) and FMCSA’s deletion of domestic transportation

of anhydrous ammonia from the list of hazardous materials subject to the

Hazardous Materials Safety Permit (HMSP). These fields are identified as

follows in the Hazardous Materials Carried or Shipped section of the respective

registration forms.

Form MCSA-1, Uniform Registration System (URS), for initial online

registration.

Div 2.2 (Anhydrous Ammonia)

Class 3 A (Flammable liquid which is a PIH Zone A)

Class 3 B (Flammable liquid which is a PIH Zone B)

Forms MCS-150 and MCS-150B for registration updates (hard copy version).

Div 2.2D (Ammonia)

Class 3A

Class 3B

Forms MCS-150 and MCS-150B for registration updates (online version).

Div 2.2A (Ammonia)

Class 3A

Class 3B

Background:

The FMCSA stated in its October 2017 advisory that it no longer requires or

issues a HMSP for the domestic transportation of UN 1005, anhydrous

ammonia. The Hazardous Materials Table (HMT, 49 CFR 172.101) identifies

anhydrous ammonia for domestic transportation as a Division 2.2 material with

no assigned poison inhalation hazard (PIH) zone. As such, when transporting

anhydrous ammonia domestically, it should be declared on FMCSA

registration forms as a Division 2.2 non-flammable compressed gas (Div

2.2).

However, when transporting anhydrous ammonia using the description for

international transport, UN1005, ammonia, anhydrous 2.3 Poison Inhalation

Hazard or Toxic Inhalation Hazard, Zone D, it is declared on FMCSA

registration forms as a Division 2.3 D poison gas, which is a PIH Zone D

(Div 2.3 D).

In addition, each of the FMCSA registration forms offer options for declaring the

transportation of Class 3A (flammable liquid which is a PIH Zone A) and Class 3B

(flammable liquid which is a PIH Zone B) materials. The HMT does not identify

any Class 3 material with a subsidiary hazard meeting the definition of a PIH

Zone A or B. Further 49 CFR 173.2a precludes the assignment of a PIH Zone A

or B to a Class 3 material. As such, all flammable liquids are appropriately

declared on FMCSA registration forms as Class 3.

Action:

The FMCSA is directing motor carriers that currently have entries in their

registration record referring to Division 2.2 anhydrous ammonia, Class 3A, or

Class 3B to delete the information in those fields and appropriately declare the

transportation of anhydrous ammonia and Class 3 flammable liquids as

provided in the following table.

provided in the following table.

These updates must be completed prior to July 31, 2019. After that date, the affected data fields will no longer be used or accessible by the user.

FMCSA is also directing motor carriers who are applying for an initial registration or otherwise updating their registration to declare the transportation of anhydrous ammonia or Class 3 flammable liquids as provided above in the Background section and to avoid the use of any of the form fields identified above in the Issue section. For questions or concerns, please contact the FMCSA Contact Center, at 1-800-832-5660 or submit via our website at https://ask.fmcsa.dot.gov/.