Article Summary
A dangerous goods program can have every policy, certification, and containment solution in place and still fail if the people running it aren’t properly developed. John Redman, COO at Americase International, argues that the human element of a hazmat safety program can’t be solved through process, one-time training, or automation — it requires a real, multi-year investment in the individuals at each shipping location who are empowered to apply regulations to real operational judgment calls, including the judgment call to stop a shipment and ask for help. This article covers what that investment actually looks like: identifying key people, building in the one-to-two-year runway it takes to get someone comfortable in the role, and giving them the ownership and connectivity to the organization that turns compliance into culture rather than a checklist.
Why the Human Element Can’t Be Systematized
In the hazardous materials and dangerous goods community, developing people is critical — and it’s usually a small team. Within any organization, it tends to be just a handful of people in environmental, safety, or hazmat roles who actually hold the expertise to manage compliance and regulatory requirements. That means the human element isn’t something you can solve through a process. It isn’t something you can solve through a one-time training session, or even a few short-term trainings. It has to be a real investment in the people leading these activities at each shipping location — making sure they have the proper support, the proper connectivity to the organization, and the confidence to know when not to ship something and to ask for help instead.
Investing in the People Who Carry Your Program
Staying connected to the key people identified within your supply chain matters. Monthly meetings and weekly one-on-ones are a good way to support their development — but the honest timeline is longer than most organizations plan for. Putting someone into one of these positions is usually a one-to-two-year onboarding process before they’re genuinely comfortable with the responsibility they’re carrying.
Building Ownership — and the Authority to Say No
There are few things as satisfying as watching people grow into a role: putting someone in a position to succeed and watching them become a real expert for the organization. That growth is what builds a strong safety culture — empowering people to engage directly in regulatory activity, protecting the company through their own judgment, and giving them the standing to identify improvement opportunities within the organization themselves, rather than waiting to be told where the gaps are.
Why Judgment Can’t Be Automated
This human element can’t be replaced by systems, and it can’t be replaced by AI. There are too many judgment calls involved in hazardous materials work. You need people who can look at a specific scenario, apply the regulations to their actual operational environment, and either make the right call or know exactly who to contact to get the support to make it. The stakes of getting that wrong are not abstract: it can be one errant shipment — the one vehicle that takes down a vessel, the one battery placed on an aircraft that causes an air incident, or the one over-the-road shipment that wasn’t prepared correctly and results in a thermal event, a roadway incident, and a full regulatory reporting obligation.
How Americase Supports the Human Element
The pillars covered in Part 1 of this series — compliance foundations, engineering-driven containment, testing, and continuous improvement — only hold up if the people running them are properly developed. That’s part of why HazMat Safety Consulting exists inside the Americase International family: to give client organizations direct access to the kind of regulatory expertise and training support that would otherwise take years to build in-house, so the people carrying your program day to day aren’t carrying it alone.
By John Redman, Chief Operating Officer, Americase International
FAQ Section
Dangerous goods compliance involves too many real-time judgment calls for a checklist or a one-time training to cover. It requires ongoing investment in the small group of people who actually hold that expertise within an organization — people who understand the regulations well enough to apply them to specific, real-world shipping scenarios.
Typically one to two years. Putting someone into a hazmat or dangerous goods compliance role is a multi-year development process, supported by regular check-ins such as monthly meetings and weekly one-on-ones, before they’re genuinely comfortable with the responsibility.
It means team members are empowered to engage directly in regulatory activity, apply judgment to protect the company, and proactively identify compliance gaps or improvement opportunities — rather than simply following a checklist someone else built.
No. Hazardous materials work involves too many context-specific judgment calls — evaluating a specific shipment, applying regulations to a real operational environment, and knowing when to escalate. That requires trained people, not automation.
The consequences can be severe and immediate: a single errant shipment, such as an improperly prepared battery shipment, can cause a vessel loss, an air incident, or a roadway thermal event with full regulatory reporting obligations.