A placard load refers to a vehicle carrying over a certain amount of dangerous goods that is required to display placards (i.e. sign or notice) during transport.
A vehicle must be placarded if it is carrying:
- dangerous goods (other than explosives, infectious and radioactive substances) in a receptacle that exceeds a capacity of 500 litres or a net mass of 500 kilograms (measurements typically combined and quoted as L/kg)
- an aggregate quantity of dangerous goods (other than explosives, infectious and radioactive substances) of 250 litres per kilogram or more of:
- Division 2.1 goods (other than aerosols), for example LP Gas or acetylene cylinders or
- Division 2.3 goods, for example ammonia or chlorine gas or
- Packing Group I dangerous goods, for example, sodium cyanide, carbon disulfide
- an aggregate quantity of dangerous goods (other than explosives, infectious and radioactive substances) of 1,000 litres per kilogram or more other than the loads shown in (b).
Copies of dangerous goods class labels are available from the National Transport Commission.