Limited Quantity Exception

There are some cases where the full requirements described in the regulations are relaxed because they are not thought to represent as severe a hazard as larger quantities and the Limited Quantity Exemption is one example of this.

If you qualify under the limited Quantity Exemption, and for transport on road, rail or domestic ship, the following are not required:

  • Documentation (part 3),
  • Marks (lables) (part 4),
  • Means of containment (part 5),
  • Training (part 6),
  • Emergency Response Assistance Plan (ERAP; part 7) and
  • Accidental Release reporting (part 8).
  Conditions for the exemption:  
  1. the Limited quantity exemption does not apply to class 1 items (explosives)
  2. it does not apply to transport via air or international ship
  3. the dangerous goods must be in a container that is closed and secured so that it does not release the contents during transport
  4. the maximum size of an individual container is less than or equal to the size specified in the Limited Quantity (column 6 of Schedule 1): for a solid, the units are kilograms, for a liquid or gas, the units are litres.
  5. several individual containers (each holding an amount less than the limited quantity amount can be grouped in a box as long as the total mass of a box is less than 30 kilograms
  6. each container and each box of containers should be marked with the name of the hazardous product, the UN number for the product and the words "Limited Quantity"
  7. you may have several boxes (<30 kg each) in a shipment
  8. if you have a gross mass over 500 kg of limited quantities going to one destination, then you must have a shipping document with the words "Limited Quantity" and the release Reporting requirements (part 8 ) now apply (this is a lot of dangerous goods being carried in one vehicle, you probably don't want to approach anywhere near this amount)
  9. there does not seem to be a maximum total allowable in a shipment under the limited quantity exemption
The Bottom Line:

Basically you can legally transport several kilograms/litres of hazardous materials if each container size is less than the Limited Quantity amount and they are assembled in boxes less than 30 kg each. 

Some people believe that the most you can carry is the value specified as the Limited Quantity index and this is not correct.
Here are some examples for small quantities of products being transported between a field site and the university via a personally owned or rented road vehicle (not on a public means of transport with passengers). If you are using some other method of transport, make sure the exemption is applicable to your shipment.