AMSA Notice to Members

Thursday, 15 March 2012

Dear Members

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) have issued the following important notice regarding mandatory Maritime Dangerous Goods Training. Please advise all Staff concerned of these very important changes:

IMPORTANT NOTICE - MANDATORY DG MARITIME TRAINING

REMINDER: This training became mandatory from 1 January 2012. Unless your certificate shows you have completed training for IMDG Code Amendment 35-10, you MUST complete this training to be compliant with the upgrade to the new Amendment.

A certificate that shows training for Amendment 34-08 is NOT current regardless of the expiry date as training for Amendment 35-10 must now be completed since 1 January 2012.

On 1 January 2012, a revision of the IMDG Code from 34-08 to 35-10 came into effect. At that time ALL persons handling or dealing with dangerous goods destined for carriage by sea were required to complete training relevant to the new Amendment.

Please note: This training is not optional for these shore-based personnel across the range of occupational 'functions' (roles).

The attachment (below) shows a full list of functions and how these relate to your occupational category. There are eleven (11) functions and they range from shippers and packers to stevedores and everyone in between who handles or processes DG destined for carriage by sea. Even if the cargo is not sighted or handled, persons processing paperwork for DG consignments are required to complete this training.

Our advice is that most international freight forwarders will require functions 6 and 7 (and 5 if they are signing the multi-modal DG form - also known as the MO41). However certain occupational categories may use functions beyond that e.g. packing or transporting of DG. If you are an international freight forwarder, and you are unsure of which functions to take, we suggest 5, 6 & 7.

The following are your options based on your current training situation:

Previous IMDG training taken	New training requirements
Nil	Depending on your role (function) you will need to complete: General Awareness training. GA training is suitable for receptionists for example but not for cargo handlers or freight forwarders Full function training (see the function list attached to choose the functions in the training you need to undertake.)
General awareness	If your role dictates that GA training is all you need then there is no mandatory requirement to undertake further refresher training. This is at the discretion of the employer. Important note: Many people who should have taken full function training in 2010 have been shown to have completed only GA training by mistake. Please consult the function list attached and review your training certificate from your previous training to see what training you actually have undertaken. If you don't have your certificate you will need to complete the full function training. If you should have undertaken full function training last time but only undertook GA, then you will need to undertake full function training now. The refresher is NOT suitable for people in this category.
Full functions	If you are still in this role you will need to undertake the refresher training only. There is no need to undertake the full functions training a second time. You will need to undertake this training if your previous certificate shows you have completed training for Amendment 34-08. Note that you will still need to complete this refresher training regardless of the expiry date showing on your certificate.

Please click here for Function Specific Training Requirements.

Note: Some people have interpreted information provided by AMSA to the effect that the validity of their training is three years and therefore further training is not required until 2013 (if they undertook training in 2010). This is not correct. As a result of the new Amendment coming into effect on 1 January 2012, ALL training now needs to be updated as at that time.

AFIF offers this AMSA-accredited training via classroom-based training.

Please refer training link below for all dates and to register online:
http://www.afif.asn.au/education_training_imdgclassroom.asp

For more information, contact Jodie Murray, AFIF Training Administrator on (02) 9314 3055 or email training@afif.asn.au.

Regards,

Brian Lovell
CEO

Australian Federation of International Forwarders Ltd (AFIF)
Suite 403, Level 3
152 Bunnerong Road
Eastgardens NSW 2036
Tel: (61 2) 9314 3055
Fax: (61 2) 9314 3116