Training Critical to Safe Handling of Hazardous Goods

Training Critical to Safe Handling of Hazardous Goods

by James Owen, Manager, Dangerous Goods

It’s built right into Matson’s Values – Safety. We make workplace safety our highest priority both on land and at sea. The safety of our employees and customers helps make Matson the successful company it is today.

Attendees, facing a screen and speaker, sit in a classroom style arrangement in a conference room.
Offsite dangerous goods training session.

As part of our commitment to safety, the Dangerous Goods team spends a portion of our time conducting training sessions on preparing and shipping hazardous materials (HAZMAT) to ensure that we transport these dangerous goods (DG) safely and avoid any incidents that could negatively impact people or the environment.

Training includes everything from employees packaging materials to clerks preparing shipping papers to shoreside personnel loading containers. We cover being familiar with the various codes and laws, recognizing and identifying hazardous materials, and knowing specific emergency response requirements, self-protection measures, and accident prevention methods and procedures.

Matson conducts training at all locations where we receive and ship dangerous goods – usually at a Matson facility, but sometimes, a group is so large that we need an offsite location. This is exciting because it shows our customers are also committed to safety.

Recently, Cliff Bartley, manager, Dangerous Goods, and Scott Garcia, specialist, Dangerous Goods, conducted a training class in Tacoma with over fifty customers. The following week, one of those customers contacted us for guidance regarding what appeared to be a damaged drum containing HAZMAT. Cliff was able to provide detailed instruction on damaged packaging requirements.

A similar situation arose involving lithium-ion batteries. The DG team and Customer Service were able to explain our strict rules for transporting lithium-ion batteries and even provided the shipper with videos explaining thermal runaway risks with these batteries. These are good examples of the value of our training and how knowledgeable Matson’s employees are on the risks of shipping hazardous materials.