Why The Shippers Require An IATA and IMDG Certification

by Aiden Goh Author

Transporting goods are one of the most important tasks that are functioned by any business organisations. Transporting products from one place to another does not imply that it will transport only normal goods. There are several hazardous goods that are also needed to be transported, and the process of transportation has to be at its best. Those staffs who are engaged in transporting these types of products are given special types of training such as IATA training and IMDG training for both air and waterways.

What is the IATA Certificate?

International Air Transport Association is abbreviated as IATA; it is the trade association of the whole world’s airline. It offers training with specialisations to the staffs in order to make them capable of handling the transportation of hazardous goods. This IATA training takes three to four days. This training is conducted within a classroom, which is prepared specially for this training and gives proper skills to function all the works in transporting those goods. The staffs are also given the detailed of the destination country’s rules and regulations, in order to avoid any confusions. After the training, the staffs have to pass a written examination. On successful completion of the mentioned training, a certificate is awarded to them, which needs to be reinstated in every two years.

What is the IMDG Certificate?

IMDG indicated International Maritime Dangerous Goods; it trains the staffs to process smooth transportation of hazardous goods through the path of the ocean. Same as the IATA training, this IMDG training is also conducted in three to four days, and it trains the employees in packaging, labelling, marking etc. To clear all the possible doubts that are wandering in the minds of the candidates and in-depth training sessions are conducted. After the training, the shippers have to pass a written examination. On successful completion of this IMDG training, a certificate is awarded to them, which needs to be renewed in every three years.

Why are IATA and IMDG Certifications necessary for the shippers?

Both the training is very much important for any shipper. Shipping of these hazardous materials are a tough job, and if any accident happens, it will affect the environment directly. Including the plants and animals, it can be life-threatening for the whole biome. Any cargo required a good packing for a better shipment, while the shipments through air and ocean need extra attention for the packaging. As hazardous materials can cause a disaster and therefore, it becomes necessary to ensure that the packaging is good. There are also special techniques to handle these kinds of goods, which needs to be adopted by the shippers. If any shipper does not have the IATA or IMDG certificate, he or she can be charged a penalty.

In newspapers, we read some news like petrol tanker leaked while shipping. As petrol has a different density from water, they both do not mix with each other and forms a layer of gasoline on the water surface. It harms the plants and animal who are living in the ocean. It also makes an artificial oxygen crisis for them. In order to avoid these kinds of a devastating accident, and IATA and IMDG certification is required for the shippers.