RID Committee of Experts

Track back

RAIL Although the applicability of the RID Regulations is broadening, operators and users still need to interface with a different legal structure to the east, in both regulatory and technical areas. Smoothing this interface is likely to be one of the most demanding tasks of the new RID standing working group

Wascosa rail tank

Barging through

INLAND WATERWAYS Updates to the ADN Regulations generally harmonise with those for road and rail transport but also have the unique requirement to govern transport in tank vessels. The Safety Committee spent a lot of time dealing with detailed provisions at its final meeting before publication of the 2013 text

Barge Argonon

Take your time

MULTIMODAL The last meeting of the joint RID/ADR/ADN experts was a comparatively laid-back affair. A few urgent corrections to the 2013 texts were agreed but much else was remitted for further discussion. The one big change agreed for the 2015 texts is a revision of the provisions for carriage in bulk

Hoyer tank container on truck

Batteries included

MULTIMODAL As is often the case, the third session of the biennium saw the UN TDG experts faced with an enormous agenda. Although some issues were batted back for more work, the meeting did manage to finalise some important changes

Solar Installation Battery Fire

Just one more thing

ROAD As the list of Contracting Parties to ADR continues to grow, some thought is being given to providing some help on implementation by states acceding the Agreement. On the other hand, the last-minute adoption of some significant new provisions for entry into force next year seems destined to make matters harder for all involved

Den Hartogh road tanker

Float on

INLAND WATERWAYS It might be thought that keeping a vessel the right way up is a fundamental aspect of maritime operations, whether at sea or upriver. The ADN experts have, though, felt it necessary to introduce prescriptive requirements to improve standards

Ludwigshafen inland port

Over to you

ROAD/RAIL Many of the issues that the RID/ADR/ADN joint experts are called upon to debate are of such a technical nature that matters have to be passed on to the standards-setting bodies. Such practice raises its own set of problems

Hoyer gas container in Werkstatt

Look both ways

ROAD/RAIL Caught between the UN experts on the one hand and the modal plenary bodies on the other, the joint meeting of RID/ADR/ADN experts has to consider both the broader and more specific impact of its decisions. Its latest session advocated some late changes to the rules due to appear next year

Train being unloaded - BASF

Read all about it!

MULTIMODAL Anyone who hopes that the UN experts will one day complete the Orange Book and leave well alone will be sorely disappointed; as their last session showed, continuing technological developments continue to raise new problems for the regulators to wrestle with

Man inspecting barrels of hazardous goods

Slips and drips

RAIL The RID experts followed their WP15 colleagues in rejecting some of the recent changes adopted at the joint meeting. However, their agenda was overflowing with rail-specific amendments, many of which have been agreed for entry into force next year

Rail tanks carrying hazardous chemicals
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