Shipping a liferaft - UN2990

[Grampus]

Shipping a liferaft by sea turned out to be somewhat more difficult than I imagined, afterall it's a boat's liferaft carried by a shipping boat.

It turns out that the shipping company required to generate a DGN - a Dangerous Goods Note.

In order to complete such a form I needed to supply the Dangerous Goods Number, the UN number relating to Liferafts which contain pyrotechnics and compressed gas cylinders.

This turned out to be fairly difficult to obtain, eventually provided by the nice lady at Force 4 Chadlery and from Seago.

So if you need it, you need to quote " UN 2990 " which defines it as lifesaving equipment and everyone knows what it means.

Galps

 

[z1ppy]

Life rafts (as well as life jackets) are classified as hazardous cargo for transport.

UN 2990 relates to "life saving appliance, self inflating" and covers what would be carried in the life raft including the flares and compressed gas cylinders.

In order to ship from uk you will need to have a dangerous goods declaration by sea or air depending on the mode if transport being sent under. Even if this is going by road, it will need a dangerous goods declaration by sea as it needs to cross the water.

Most transport companies should be able to take this at a cost and many will be able to prepare documents for you. For some, the extra work is not worth their time or they don't know how to do it legally!

There have been several recent cases of consignments being checked and offloaded if they are not declared as hazardous cargo.