Alaska Announcement: Operations: Keep from Freezing 2009
09.11.2009
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BEGINNING OF “KEEP FROM FREEZING” SERVICE
As a regular part of our Alaska Transportation Service, Horizon Lines provides specialized equipment (refrigerated and insulated containers) to protect your cargo from freeze damage. This service will begin with the sailing of the KO755N, departing Tacoma on Friday, 10/2/09. For southbound freight, service will begin with the sailing of the KO755S, departing Anchorage on Tuesday, 10/6/09.
To utilize this service, please advise Horizon Lines at the time of booking to ensure that you are provided the proper equipment to load. Freight at the shipper’s warehouse should be loaded in a way that will allow warm air to circulate within the load, and items subject to overheating should not be placed adjacent to the heater wall panels. “KEEP FROM FREEZING” should be notated on bills of lading for shipments tendered under this service. (For a copy of the tariff rule 810 that applies, please call the undersigned.)
For customers who utilize reefers as KFF containers, please note that hazardous corrosives (class 8), poisons (class 6.1 and 6.2), poison gas (class 2.3), and flammable gas (class 2.1) cannot be loaded into reefer units. Oxidizers (class 5.1) and organic peroxides (class 5.2) may present special problems when loading in a reefer unit. Please call Tacoma Cargo Services at the number below prior to loading. They can also answer questions on multiple hazard classes (i.e., flammable corrosives). The US government regulations require that poisons not be loaded into reefers because they could subsequently be used to carry food products. Insulated containers should be used for commodities which cannot be loaded into reefers.
Shippers of flammable products should review the attachment to this announcement.
Please feel free to contact Tacoma Cargo Services at 253-882-1602 or Cliff Bartley at 904-482-1761 for questions about specific products. Please contact the Martha Hill at 425-272-8521 if you have general questions about KFF.
FLAMMABLE PRODUCTS IN REEFERS
The hazardous materials regulations prohibit the loading of class 2.1 flammable gas products in reefers. (49CFR176.200(f))
Class 3 flammable liquid products are not recommended to be loaded in reefers but there is an exception in the hazardous materials regulations, which applies to most paints, paint related materials and other class 3 products in packing group III with a flash point above 100F. Title 49CFR section 173.150 allows class 3 flammable liquids with a flash point above 1000 F to be reclassified as a combustible liquid (see 173.150(f) as long as it is not a hazardous substance, hazardous waste or a marine pollutant (see 171.8 in the 49CFR). Note that if you reclassify a product, you should also remark and relabeled the packaging for consistency.
The regulations read as follow:
”(f) Combustible liquids. (1) A flammable liquid with a flash point at or above 38 °C (100 °F) that does not meet the definition of any other hazard class may be re-classed as a combustible liquid. This provision does not apply to transportation by vessel or aircraft, except where other means of transportation is impracticable.
173.150(f)(2)
(2) The requirements in this subchapter do not apply to a material classed as a combustible liquid in a non-bulk packaging unless the combustible liquid is a hazardous substance, a hazardous waste, or a marine pollutant.”
Combustible liquids shipped in non bulk packaging are therefore exempt from the shipping paper and placarding requirements for water, rail and truck under this provision if shipped to a location where there are no other means of practicable transportation.
In the case of cargo moving to Alaska, non-vessel transportation to Alaska is considered impractical so this exception applies.
We encourage you to load lower-flashpoint freeze sensitive products into insulated containers.
Please direct questions to Horizon Lines, Cliff Bartley: 904-482-1761.