Dangerous Goods Transport in South Africa: Rules, Exemptions and What Officers Check

Before anything else, answer one question: is your load above the exempt quantity? Below it, the dangerous goods rules do not apply to you at all — no PrDP D, no placards, no Tremcard. Above it, every requirement on this page applies at once. Most operators who get this wrong are not ignoring the rules; they never worked out which side of the line they were on.

This page covers where that line sits, what applies once you cross it, and what a traffic officer may lawfully do at the roadside.

The exempt quantity: the question that decides everything

SANS 10231 sets the threshold, and it works in two ways depending on your load.

Your load	The test
One UN number	If the total quantity loaded is less than the exempt quantity for that substance in table C.1, the standard does not apply.
A mixed load	Provided no single item exceeds its own exempt quantity, work out A = Q × F for each item — Q is the quantity in kg or litres, F is that substance’s factor from table C.1. If the sum of all the A values does not exceed 1 000, the standard does not apply.

Two worked figures from table C.1, read directly off the standard:

• UN 1203 — motor spirit / petrol. Class 3, packing group II. Exempt quantity 500, factor 2.
• UN 1202 — gas oil / diesel fuel (flash point <60,5 °C). Class 3, packing group III. Exempt quantity 1 000, factor 1.

The relationship is not a coincidence: the more dangerous packing group carries the lower threshold and the higher factor, so both substances reach the 1 000 ceiling at their own exempt quantity. Petrol runs out of room twice as fast as diesel.

The eight standing exemptions

Separately from quantity, clause 7.4 exempts the transport of dangerous goods where:

• the goods are used to operate the vehicle carrying them — fuel in the fuel tank;
• the goods are moved between adjacent premises not more than 1 km apart;
• the vehicle has built-in road construction machinery;
• a private individual carries goods packaged for retail sale, for personal, domestic, leisure or sporting use;
• the carriage is supervised by the emergency services — for example a breakdown vehicle towing a vehicle that has been in an accident;
• the transport is an emergency to save human lives or protect the environment, with all necessary precautions taken;
• the goods are exempted by special provision in SANS 10228 or table C.1; and
• a bona fide farmer or their employee carries goods for use in farming operations — provided the goods are not for resale, the journey does not exceed 250 km of which no more than 50 km is on an N-numbered arterial road, and the quantity does not exceed 1 000 L liquid, 1 000 kg solid, or 1 000 combined in a mixed load.

The farmer exemption is the one most often claimed and most often claimed wrongly. All five of its conditions must hold together — a 300 km run breaks it, and so does 60 km on an N road.

The nine classes and three packing groups

Dangerous goods are classified in nine classes and three packing groups, following the United Nations Recommendations. The class describes the type of hazard; the packing group describes the degree of danger.

Class	What it covers
1	Explosives
2	Gases
3	Flammable liquids — petrol, diesel, solvents; the bulk of SA tanker freight
4	Flammable solids; substances liable to spontaneous combustion; substances that emit flammable gases on contact with water
5	Oxidizing substances and organic peroxides
6	Toxic and infectious substances
7	Radioactive material
8	Corrosives — acids, caustics
9	Miscellaneous dangerous substances and goods — anything not covered by classes 1–8 that still presents a transport risk

A substance can carry a subsidiary risk as well as its primary class — a class 8 corrosive that is also flammable, for instance. Both appear on the placard.

The driver

• A valid and correct driving licence for the vehicle — see driving licence codes in South Africa.
• A valid PrDP category D (dangerous goods). The professional driving permit is tested every second year.
• Minimum age 25 for category D. This is the one that surprises operators: an experienced 23-year-old Code EC driver cannot legally take a dangerous goods load.
• A certificate from a Department of Transport approved training body, and the certificate must not be older than six months.
• SAPS clearance.
• An annual medical fitness certificate.

Regulation 280 requires the operator — not the driver — to ensure this training happens, and it must be theoretical and practical training for the specific class of dangerous goods the driver will carry, plus practical training for the specific type of vehicle they will drive. A blanket certificate is not what the regulation asks for.

The vehicle: what an officer looks for first

The danger warning diamond

In enforcement practice the first identification of a dangerous goods vehicle is the orange diamond on the front. It must be:

• clearly visible on the front of the vehicle (no specific position is prescribed);
• orange, clean and undamaged;
• 250 mm square — or 100 mm on a vehicle of GVM less than 3 500 kg;
• mounted diagonally, so it reads as a diamond.

Placards

There must be three placards for each cargo containment area — one at the rear and one on each side — visible from the roadside, clean and undamaged. A vehicle with two containment areas needs six.

Each placard carries four zones: goods identification, operator telephone advice, specialist telephone advice, and the hazard class diamond showing the primary class plus any subsidiary hazard. Both advice numbers must reach a 24/7 answering service — a landline that rings out after hours is a non-compliant placard, and it is the detail most commonly wrong on an otherwise correct vehicle.

Fire extinguishers

Vehicle	Required
GVM 3 500 kg or less	1 × 9 kg, or 2 × 4,5 kg — externally mounted
Rigid vehicle, GVM more than 3 500 kg	2 × 9 kg — externally mounted
Horse (truck-tractor)	1 × 9 kg — externally mounted
Trailer or semi-trailer	2 × 9 kg — externally mounted

The documents, and where they must live

The documents are not simply “in the cab”. Chapter VIII requires a designated space: a container, orange, marked with the word documents in black, securely fixed, clearly visible in the cab and easily accessible. It must contain only documents for the goods actually being carried.

Document	Detail
Transport Emergency Card (Tremcard)	Per SANS 10232-4. One for each dangerous goods item in the load, stored in the designated space. Valid for 3 years.
Dangerous Goods Declaration	Headed “DANGEROUS GOODS DECLARATION”. Must carry the proper shipping name, UN number, quantity and type of packaging, gross mass (or volume) and net mass, and the names and contact details of consignor, operator and consignee.
Waste Dangerous Goods Declaration	Where applicable
Cleanliness Certificate	Where applicable

What the operator must do — beyond the truck

SANS 10231 places duties on the operator that have nothing to do with the vehicle itself:

• Register as a dangerous goods operator with the relevant government department, and ensure a valid dangerous goods operator card is displayed in the vehicle. This is separate from the ordinary operator card every goods vehicle over 3 500 kg carries — see what a goods operator must register for.
• Agree a basic route with the driver, incorporating any local authority requirements en route, and inform the emergency response centres of the areas the vehicle will pass through. For regular cargo this may be submitted once at the start of operations — but the operator must also tell them when operations stop or the hazard changes. Local emergency services may require an alternative route.
• Carry insurance, based on the hazard and risk of the goods carried, covering civil liability, recovery and rehabilitation costs (clause 5.2). See truck insurance in South Africa — this is a materially different cover from ordinary GIT.
• On being informed of an incident, ensure the emergency services and police have been informed, and where there is injury, fire, explosion or spillage, submit an incident report within 30 days.
• A cargo transfer after overloading counts as an incident — it requires the emergency services to be notified and a qualified person to supervise the transfer. An overload on a dangerous goods vehicle is not the same problem as an overload on a tautliner. See legal mass and dimensions.

Duties also fall on the consignor and consignee, not only the transporter (regulation 277). The consignor must ensure a mixed load is compatible, and must present the goods in packaging approved by an approved test station. If you are hauling for someone, the classification and packaging decisions are theirs — but the placards on your truck are yours.

What a traffic officer may do at the roadside

Regulation 283A gives a traffic officer specific powers over a vehicle suspected of carrying dangerous goods. They may enter the vehicle or premises and:

• demand any prescribed document from the driver, operator or person in charge;
• demand information about the substance, packaging, containers or bulk equipment;
• determine the quantity or volume of the dangerous goods — which is how the exempt quantity question gets settled on the roadside;
• examine, copy or take extracts from any book, statement or document found on the vehicle.

There is a limit worth knowing. An officer may not open dangerous goods packages, or unload or decant the goods, unless the operator has been notified, the local authority has authorised it, a qualified person supervises, and the dangerous goods inspectorate has been notified. That protection exists because opening a package badly is more dangerous than leaving it closed.

What this page does not give you: the full exempt quantity table

We have not reproduced table C.1 of SANS 10231, and the reason is worth stating.

The table gives every UN number its own exempt quantity and factor, running from UN 1000 to UN 3468. We were able to read individual rows reliably — the petrol and diesel figures above were each read and column-checked by hand — but a bulk extraction did not survive with its columns correctly aligned: of 280 rows where a quantity and factor could be extracted automatically, 33 produced values that cannot be right. We could not tell which were extraction faults and which were genuine exceptions without reading the original layout row by row.

A dangerous goods threshold that is wrong for 33 substances is worse than no table at all, because the whole purpose of the number is to tell someone they are safe. So the mechanism is above, the two most common fuels are above, and for your substance you must read table C.1 in SANS 10231 itself, or ask your consignor — who is required to classify the goods in any event.

Source and currency

Sources: Chapter VIII of the National Road Traffic Regulations under the National Road Traffic Act 93 of 1996 — regulation 273 (definitions), 273A (incorporation of standards), 274 (application and exempt quantities), 277 (duties of operator, driver, consignor and consignee), 278 (compatibility), 279 (classification and packaging), 280 (driver training), 281 (documents), 283A (powers of traffic officers). Classification and packing groups from SANS 10228:2012 clauses 5.1 and 5.2. Exempt quantity mechanism, operator duties and insurance from SANS 10231:2010 clauses 4.2, 5.2, 7.1, 7.2, 7.4 and annex C. Driver requirements, danger warning diamond, placards, designated space, Tremcard, declaration contents and fire extinguisher quantities from the Department of Transport presentation Transport of Dangerous Goods by Road: National Road Traffic Act, Regulations and SANS Codes — Driver and Vehicle Requirements, published by the Department of Employment and Labour.

Related standards referenced by the regulations: SANS 10229 (packaging), SANS 1518 (construction, testing, approval and maintenance of road vehicles and portable tanks), SANS 10232-1 (emergency information systems — placards), -3 (emergency action codes / ERG) and -4 (Transport Emergency Card), and SANS 10187 (cargo securement).

Current as at 14 August 2026. Dangerous goods law changes by amendment and by revision of the incorporated SANS standards, and the standards themselves are the binding detail. Nothing here is a substitute for the standards or for advice from your dangerous goods training body. If a figure on this page matters to a decision you are about to make, confirm it against the standard.

Carrying dangerous goods, and finding the work

Dangerous goods work is the most heavily regulated freight on the road, and the operators who do it properly carry a cost base that general freight does not. That should show up in what they are paid, and it only does if the shipper can see what the operator holds.

List your trucks on the Kweli Load Exchange — your compliance documents sit on your profile where a shipper sees them before allocating, and the loads you complete build a record that travels with you. Kweli does not filter loads by hazchem class: vehicle type and corridor are the only matching criteria, and everything else — including what a load contains and what your truck is equipped for — is shown to both sides as disclosure so the people responsible make the call. We record and we compare; we do not certify.