This post was originally published in December 2017 and has been updated in April 2022 for accuracy.
Q Value!
Now doesn’t that sound interesting. When you want to ship different dangerous goods in one outer packaging, you have to calculate something called a “Q value” using a formula. The Q value ordeal is only applicable to air shipments and seldom used as most prefer to put the dangerous goods in separate packaging.
Last week a customer requested to have 2 different dangerous goods packaged and shipped to Brazil via air. Since the quantities for each product was less than 200 ml I thought I might be able to apply the “Q” value and besides it’s always better to consolidate your shipment if you can to prevent loss/delay of packages. Especially this time of the year.
I ensured the dangerous goods met all the requirements of Section 5.0.2.11 of the IATA Regulation. I calculated the “Q” value and it was less than 1.0. So, everything seemed to be a go. For packaging, I used a 4GV box and lots of vermiculite to:
- separate the two dangerous goods and
- more than enough absorbent in case there was a leak (only one product was liquid)
Applied all the labels and markings, created the shipper’s declaration and added the Q value as required per Section 8.1.6.9.2(f), then shipped it out with Fedex.
I like to throw in a knuckleball once in a while and keep things interesting around here … like using Q value!
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This post was originally written by Racheal Mani.
