Amazon found guilty of breaching dangerous goods regulations

This report discusses the importance of complying with regulations for aircraft loading and customer safety when transporting dangerous goods. It includes a case study on Amazon's breach of dangerous goods regulations and the consequences they faced. The report also provides suggestions for companies to avoid such issues in the future.

OPERATIONS STANDARDS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Amazon has found guilty of breaching the dangerous good regulations.....................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Safe operation at arrival and departure at airport of aircraft is necessary for safety and
well-being of the passengers. Likewise, the aircraft needs to be correctly fuel to operate and
carry passengers in safe manner so that they have better travel. This report has included crucial
information related to transport of dangerous goods on board aircraft through making use of case
study. The maximum emphasis has been paid to issue in aircraft loading and customers in
context of transporting the dangerous goods. Thus it helps in understanding which aircraft has
not follow the regulation pertaining to dangerous good on board aircraft, the issue that has
resulted and the manner in which they can be easily overcome. So, the case study is “Amazon
has found guilty of breaching the dangerous good regulations”.
MAIN BODY
Dangerous good can be defined as hazardous material that are used under particular
condition and are harmful or poses threat on health and well-being of consumers, employees and
environment. Explosives, gases, flammable liquids, flammable solids, oxidizing substance and
organic peroxides, infectious substance, corrosives and miscellaneous are nine classes of
dangerous goods. Likewise, the major common items present in the household are considered as
dangerous goods in the air transport so they need to be avoided while traveling for betterment of
all. So careful attentions are required in order to manage the flammable and combustible liquids
while handling, packaging, documentation, transportation and use so that maximum benefits can
be achieved (Galieriková and et.al., 2018). In addition to this, all the regulatory framework has
to be consider while management of dangerous goods in rail, air, road and sea. So, strict
enforcement results in voluntary compliance of the regulation by the airline in case of boarding
of goods. In another words, the airline companies while dealing with dangerous goods needs to
comply with minimum requirements such as rigorous administration, knowledge of national and
international law related to transportation and real time visibility of logistic process. Thus it
contributes a lot in reducing the risk and making optimum utilisation of available capital and
enhance the overall profit of the firm.
International air transport association has firstly developed the regulation i.e, dangerous
good regulation and implemented in 1956, that has certain principles such as people involve in
shipping and transportation of dangerous goods must be provided with appropriate training and
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guidance related to the manner it needs to be handle. Along with it, the shippers are also
responsible to comply with the regulation such as marking, labelling, documentation, packaging
and documentation of dangerous goods (Sagers, 2019). Furthermore, the airline personnel need
to checklist the validate so that the dangerous good shipment can meet the requirements of
regulatory. In order to study the Amazon has found guilty of breaching the dangerous good
regulations, the key issue of its and the method that could be used to manage the same is
discussed below:
Amazon has found guilty of breaching the dangerous good regulations
On 20 September 2016, Amazon has been found guilty at Southwark county country for
breaching the Dangerous good regulations. This case has been taken into the court by Civil
Aviation Authority that resulted in unlimited fines to the company. Moreover, it has been
identified that the in 2015-15, an online company that send the prohibited items like lithium
batteries and aerosol through airplane has been accused. Staff of Royal mail screening has
founded all the items at the intended departure in response of that Amazon has pleaded “not
guilt”, at the starting of the trail itself (McKibbin, 2020). Thereby, finally the decision has been
taken by the court that under offence of Air Navigation (dangerous good) regulation of 2002,
that founded Amazon guilty “of causing dangerous goods deliver for carriage in the aircraft”.
Amazon has been ordered by the court to make pay fine of £65,000 with addition to £60,000
costs, all these has resulted in high cost or overall expense of the firm (Caroline Raine discusses
the cost of non-compliance in the supply and transport of chemicals and dangerous goods,
2021). At the same time in 2013, as per the Federal Aviation Authority 22 civil penalties against
the Amazon which resulted in more than $1.4 million cost.
From starting of January 2014 to 2015, the Amazon has been founded guilty for four
offence pertaining to the shipment of dangerous good from the particular destination to out or
within the United Kingdom. The amazon by prohibiting the dangerous good regulation on the
passenger aircraft has resulted in causing highly risk to flight safety and security. The issue was
that the company instead of shipping the lithium cell and batteries in air cargo has carriage is
forbidden on board passenger aircraft. All the packages being transferred should have a label so
that they are communicating necessary information about the hazard (Bhaimia, 2018). As a
result, the CAA has ban the transport of lithium batteries as mail or cargo passenger aircraft
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unless and until they are properly packed with the necessary equipment and effectively installed.
CAA further states that the safety of public and aviation are paramount and it is important for
company to comply with the international and domestic restriction in order to prohibit the
shipping of certain good that have flight safety risk.
Furthermore, there are many information related to the Flight safety are find out such as
Court has find out that Amazon has shipped the battery to Jersey a day before the 7 January
2014. On the similar date, the flammable gas aerosol has been shipped to Romania and Ireland
on 17 July 2014. CSS has work closely with the online traders and retailers to make ensure that
all regulation and process has been completed by the company so that items can safely shipped
to other place. The packaging of the material has been done through the Amazon security system
and after review it has been identified that they were not labelled as safe. Thus, the Amazon has
been finding guilty of breaching the air shipment rules on the continuous basis despite it has
been warned several times (Skrypnik, 2019). But not reasonable care has been taken by it to
prevent the dangerous good being shipped through the aircraft. In response the statement of the
amazon was that it shipped millions of products and services every week to different parts of the
work with use of sophisticated technology and process in order to detect the potential hazard
with the shipping. It further clarify that it is priority of Amazon to ensure safety of customers,
employees, public and partners. The company has also specified that it has “neither willing fully
nor recklessly” cause the breach of rules, it is just misclassification that has been due to human
error.
The several risk that are associated with the dangerous items that has been shipped by
Amazon to passengers and employees that are working in the aircraft. Likewise, there is an
inherent risk associated with the overheating of lithium batteries thus in case they catch fire then
it is out of control. As they are made in such a manner, along with it there are many incidents
that illustrate that batteries have resulted in caught fire in the plane thereby causing threat to life
of individuals. Furthermore, it has been noticed that there have been notable place crashes after
the on-board fire likewise in 2010. One of the example of the similar case is Boeing 787
Dreamliner that has been initially grounded over the lithium ion battery fire safety issues on
airplanes (Galieriková and et.al., 2018). So, the Amazon by carry the dangerous goods in its
aircraft has increase the potential risk so it not merely the “speculative risk”. As per the
company it was an “system errors” in the organisation as the system were not appropriate
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enough to decide whether they need to be classified as dangerous. Finally, organisation has
admitted to constantly work in order to improve and work as per the CAA to follow all the
regulation related to dangerous goods. So, that no further harm or any type of threat can be
caused to staff member, passenger and other individuals at any cost. Flying with Lithium
batteries in UK is against the dangerous regulation law of United Kingdom, as the lithium
battery means family of batteries that are with different chemistries. Furthermore, they are made
from two common elements such as electrolytes and cathodes that are hazardous for people life
or safety of passenger in the aircraft. These are batteries that are mainly used in cameras,
calculator and watches, laptop and computer or used in consumer electronic goods thereby needs
by Amazon to earn huge profit margin (Zhao, Zhang and Guan, 2018). So, company for its
respective profit margin has try to avoided abiding to the regulation that results as threat to
safety of passenger to major extend.
At the same time, it can be stated that the UK airline and Civil Aviation Authority has
make certain regulation pertaining to the type of batteries that can be carried by the person or in
the baggage. So flight safety laws need to be meet for the most battery power device so that
health and safety of passengers and staff member can be ensured. In addition to this, they must
be approved by the authority of airport before the on-boarding of goods to avoid any of the
compliance in future circumstances (Camilleri, 2018). Thereby all this guideline and set of
principle contribute in ensuring that no dangerous goods in shipped or being on boarded in the
aircraft that have high potential to threat of individual life.
From the above analysis, there are certain suggestion that could be used by the Amazon to
avoid the issues around aircraft loading and customer safety when transporting Dangerous
Goods. Through abiding the recommendation Amazon in future can avoid associated risk,
retained its brand image and minimise the extra expense or cost incurred as fine for not
following the regulation related to goods that needs to be shipped in the airline. Such as:
1. First and foremost, action that needs to be undertaken by Amazon and airlines industry is
that continuous monitoring, analysing and identifying the type of material being shipped
or transported to UK through aircraft. Thus, company by classify and understanding the
material or goods that are dangerous to be transported can avoid the negative impact of it
to more extend.
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2. Secondly, it can be stated that company needs to trained its staff member and have better
techniques in order to classified things or goods that are hazardous or not good for health
and safety of people (Liu, Zhou and Sun, 2019). They can cause any harm to them due to
unnecessary things that are present in them which result in fire or major accident lead
killing of numerous passenger and employees within the aircraft.
3. Furthermore, the company need to make all efforts to implement or abide the dangerous
goods law while making shipment of goods and services from one destination to other.
So that safety and precautionary measures are timely taken to reduce the associated risk
to passenger and staff that are present in the aircraft.
Therefore, through implementing the three above suggestion the Amazon can
overcome its key issue related to dangerous good acts for its growth and survive for
longer time frame.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that aircraft loading and customer safety when
transporting dangerous goods is necessary for safety of passenger. As the dangerous goods
may cause harm to life of people such as fire, accident and other things so appropriate steps
need to be taken by the companies. The above case of Amazon related to non-abidance to
dangerous good regulation has helped in understanding that the company in order to earn
profit, has shipped dangerous good in the aircraft. That has resulted in enforcing company
to make payment of penalties and fines to specific amount. Therefore, it can be summarised
that company needs to be much concerned while shipping the type of goods for safety of all
and benefits of firm.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bhaimia, S., 2018. The general data protection regulation: the next generation of EU data
protection. Legal Information Management, 18(1). pp.21-28.
Camilleri, M. A., 2018. Travel marketing, tourism economics and the airline product: An
introduction to theory and practice. springer.
Galieriková, A and et.al., 2018. Transport of dangerous goods by rail. In MATEC Web of
Conferences (Vol. 235, p. 00004). EDP Sciences.
Liu, J., Zhou, H. and Sun, H., 2019. A three-dimensional risk management model of port
logistics for hazardous goods. Maritime Policy & Management, 46(6). pp.715-734.
McKibbin, K., 2020. Regulating Data Breaches: A Data Superfund Statute. Vand. J. Ent. &
Tech. L., 23. p.649.
Sagers, C., 2019. 20. Amazon. In United States v. Apple (pp. 228-246). Harvard University
Press.
Skrypnik, O. N., 2019. Radio Navigation Systems for Airports and Airways. Springer.
Zhao, H., Zhang, N. and Guan, Y., 2018. Safety assessment model for dangerous goods
transport by air carrier. Sustainability, 10(5). p.1306.
Online
Caroline Raine discusses the cost of non-compliance in the supply and transport of chemicals
and dangerous goods, 2021 [Online]. Available Through <
https://app.croneri.co.uk/feature-articles/cost-non-compliance-supply-and-transport-
chemicals-and-dangerous-goods?product=135 >.
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