Which dangerous goods can travel together?

The compatibility chart

Read across from one class and down to the other. A cross means the two are incompatible; small numbers are exceptions, listed under the chart. The chart applies to the primary hazard and every subsidiary hazard of each item. It is for road and rail only, not sea or air.

1. 1. Explosives are incompatible with all other dangerous goods in all quantities, except as the Australian Explosives Code allows, or for Division 1.4S below a placard load.
2. 2. Division 2.1 and Class 3 are incompatible only when both are in tanks or receptacles over 500 L each.
3. 3. Division 2.1 is incompatible with Division 2.2 gases that have subsidiary hazard 5.1, unless all are in cylinders or pressure drums of 500 L or less.
4. 4. Division 2.3 is incompatible with Division 2.2 gases that have subsidiary hazard 5.1, unless all are in cylinders or pressure drums of 500 L or less.
5. 5. Class 5 is incompatible with Class 6 or 9 materials that are fire-risk substances.
6. 6. Some particular goods of these classes are incompatible: see Table 9.2 (below).
7. 7. For Class 7 with undeveloped photographic film, people and mail, see the radioactive substances code of practice.
8. 8. Food and food packagings are incompatible with these classes in all quantities, except Class 8 food ingredients used for making food.

Named substances that don't mix

When segregation applies

The segregation rules in Chapter 9.2 apply to placard loads. Below a placard load, incompatible goods may share a vehicle, except explosives and the food rules, which apply at any quantity. At any quantity, incompatible goods must never share an overpack, a large packaging or a segregation device.

How to segregate

• Put them on separate vehicles of the same combination, such as the two trailers of a B-double.
• Put one of them in a closed freight container with rigid sides and ends.
• Pack one of them in an approved Packaging for Segregation, or an authorised LP large packaging.
• For packing groups II and III, use a segregation device.

Never on the same vehicle

In a placard load, these must not be on the same road vehicle or combination at all, even in separate containers or trailers (Table 9.3):

• Class 5 over 500 kg (L) with Class 3 or a combustible liquid over 500 L.
• Division 2.1 over 500 L with Class 3, 4 or 5 over 500 kg (L).
• Ammonium nitrate over 500 L with a sensitising or initiating agent.
• UN 3414 sodium cyanide solution over 500 L with UN 2014, 2015 or 2984 hydrogen peroxide.
• Cyanides of Division 6.1 with acids of Class 8, in any quantity, unless Packagings for Segregation are used.
• A placard load of explosives with any other placard load (see the Australian Explosives Code).