The Regulations offer certain rewards to shippers who keep package quantities down to low levels, presumably because less quantity means more safety. There are two different types of “limited quantities” differentiated in the IATA DGR, Excepted Quantities and Limited Quantities. The differences are as follows:
Shipping dangerous goods in excepted quantities
Applicable to shipments where each inner receptacle contains, in general, no more than 30 ml or 30 g, and each complete package contains, in general, no more than 500 ml or 500 g.
There are no shipping papers required, the box is a normal inexpensive one that can pass a drop test and stacking test, and there is just one label to be applied to the outside of the box:
Shipping dangerous goods in limited quantities
Applicable to shipments where each inner receptacle contains, in general, no more than 0.5 l or 0.5 kg, and each complete package contains, in general, no more than 1 l or 1 kg.
The Shipper’s Declaration for Dangerous Goods is necessary, and there are marking and labeling requirements (proper shipping name, UN number, the word Limited Quantity and the hazard label). The box is a normal inexpensive one that can pass a drop test and stacking test. I should also mention that starting January 1, 2011 packages of limited quantities will have to bear the Dangerous Goods in Limited Quantities label:
The advantages of Limited and Excepted Quantities
You must have noticed that I kept adding “in general” to the descriptions above. That's because each Dangerous Goods commodity has its own quantity requirements, and those do vary. But the central advantages for Excepted Quantities is the savings in preparation time and package costs, and of Limited Quantities - the considerable package cost savings.
These provisions are described in detail in the IATA DGR, Section 2.
