Understanding the difference between prohibited, restricted, and dangerous goods is important so that you know what restrictions you need to comply with, and to ensure you get your goods to your customers without delays, fines, or safety hazards.
This article discusses what kinds of things are considered prohibited, restricted, or dangerous goods, how these goods are classified, and includes information about applying to ship dangerous goods. This article also has a matrix showing which dangerous goods carriers accept, limit, or prohibit, and information about some of the more common carriers that ship dangerous goods.
Are my goods prohibited, restricted, or dangerous?
Understanding the difference between dangerous goods, restricted goods, and prohibited goods is crucial for safe and compliant shipping. Misclassifying items can lead to delays, fines, or even serious safety hazards. This section goes through what each of these terms means, helping you make sure your shipments meet all necessary regulations.
Prohibited goods
Prohibited goods are items that are absolutely forbidden from transport under any circumstances. These items are typically deemed too dangerous, illegal, or otherwise unacceptable for carriage by law or carrier policy. Attempting to ship prohibited goods can result in severe penalties, including fines and legal action. Examples often include illegal drugs, firearms, live animals, and certain types of waste.
Restricted goods
Restricted goods are items that are subject to specific conditions or limitations for transport. While not generally hazardous like dangerous goods, their movement might be controlled due to various reasons, such as legal restrictions, import or export regulations, or specific carrier policies. Examples include certain perishable items, high-value goods, or items requiring special licenses.
Dangerous goods
Dangerous goods are a type of restricted goods that covers items or substances that pose a risk to health, safety, or property when transported. These items are classified based on their hazardous properties, for example, if they are flammable, corrosive, or explosive. Their transport is strictly regulated to prevent accidents and ensure the safety of handlers, the public, and the environment.
You can ship dangerous goods with selected carriers, depending on what you want to ship. In most cases, you need to be pre-approved to ship dangerous goods, and the requirements and limitations vary from carrier to carrier.
Prohibited and restricted items
Shippit does not support or aid the transportation of any item that is prohibited by any law, regulation, state, or local government.
🚨 WARNING: Shipping ANY class of restricted or dangerous goods must be pre-approved by Shippit and the carrier.
❌ This symbol indicates that the item is generally prohibited from being shipped on the Shippit platform, check with your carrier for specific restrictions.
⚠️ This symbol indicates that the item is restricted on the Shippit platform. You might be able to ship these items with additional approval or documentation. Check with your carrier.
Item description | Status |
Explosives including fireworks. | ❌ |
Radioactive substances and materials. | ❌ |
Firearms and firearm accessories. | ❌ |
Tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, loose tobacco, smokeless tobacco, hookah, and shisha. | ❌ |
Electronic cigarettes and their component parts, any other similar device that relies on vaporisation or aerosolisation, and any non-combustible liquid or gel, regardless of the presence of nicotine, that can be used with any such device. | ❌ |
Gases, including aerosol cans, cigarette lighters, camping gas cylinders, fire extinguishers, whether full or empty. | ⚠️ |
Flammable liquids and solids, including paint, alcohol, perfume, and cleaning fluids. | ⚠️ |
Flammable liquids and solids, including matches, petrol, and kerosene. | ❌ |
Combustible substances, like matches. | ❌ |
Toxic, poisonous, and infectious substances, like pesticides, and infected blood. | ❌ |
Corrosives, including mercury, like thermometers, bleach, nail polish and nail polish remover, nitric acids, and battery fluids. | ❌ |
Batteries, including lithium, consumer batteries, and car, boat, and machine batteries. | ⚠️ |
Antiques, works of art, or valuable documents. | ⚠️ |
Magnets, or items containing ferro-magnetic material. | ❌ |
Oxidising substances, like hair dye, disinfectants, and fertilisers. | ❌ |
Liquids, adhesives, paint, oil, creams, and gels. | ⚠️ |
Mirrors, glass, or glass related products. | ⚠️ |
Miscellaneous dangerous substances and articles, like dry ice, and strong magnetised material. | ❌ |
Asbestos. | ❌ |
Animals, whether alive or dead, including animal skins or furs. | ❌ |
Ivory and ivory-related products. | ❌ |
Human remains and body fluids. | ❌ |
Biodegradable materials such as food, perishable items, industrial waste, plants and seeds. | ❌ |
Fake, dummy, replica, game, or toy weapons, like paintball guns, BB guns, antique weapons, swords, or knives. | ❌ |
Illegal drugs and narcotics. | ❌ |
Drugs, including medicines, prescription drugs, and khat. | ❌ |
High value items, including gold, silver, jewellery, precious metals and stones, diamonds, works of art, and antiques. | ⚠️ |
Currency. | ❌ |
Engines, generators, gear boxes, or any part containing or having contained oil or petrol unless fully flushed through. | ⚠️ |
Airbag modules. | ❌ |
Pornography. | ❌ |
Goods moving under an ATA Carnet, and all temporary exports and imports, including goods moving under FCR, FCT, and CAD (Cash Against Document). | ❌ |
Links to carrier-specific restricted freight information:
Carrier | Link |
Allied Express | |
Aramex | |
Australia Post | |
Couriers Please | |
TNT |
🚨WARNING: If you are shipping internationally, prohibited and restricted items vary by country. Reach out to your international carrier or Shippit directly for review and approval prior to shipping.
Dangerous goods classification
In Australia, the Australian Dangerous Goods (ADG) Code provides guidance on the classification and transport of dangerous goods. Different modes of transport, such as road, rail, and sea, have their own sets of regulations for dangerous goods.
By definition, dangerous goods are substances or articles with hazardous properties which, if not handled correctly, could:
Explode
Asphyxiate
Burn
Poison
Corrode skin or metals
Pollute the environment
Become unstable with other products
If you want to ship dangerous goods, you must have:
Someone certified in dangerous goods sign off on your shipments
The goods approved by the carrier if you're connecting to your own account
Approval from Shippit before configuring or activating, whether you are using Shippit's carrier accounts, or your own
Your shipment packaged with the correct dangerous goods packing standard for that the dangerous goods classification
Your shipment labelled with the correct dangerous goods placards, where required
Completed a dangerous goods declaration form, where required
An attached material safety data sheet (MSDS) or safety data sheet ( SDS), where required
Apply to ship restricted or dangerous goods
You must get pre-approval from Shippit and the carrier before you can ship dangerous goods.
🚨 WARNING: Shipping ANY class of restricted or dangerous goods must be pre-approved by Shippit and the carrier.
Before you start, check whether your desired carrier accepts the class of dangerous goods you want to ship. Check the carrier matrix for an overview, or find more detailed information about a specific carrier in our know your carrier collection.
If you're already using Shippit and want to activate a new dangerous goods carrier, you can download and complete the Dangerous Goods Request Form. Send your completed form to your Shippit representative, or email to [email protected] for review. You receive a confirmation from us when it's all ready to go.
If you are new to Shippit, get in touch with our team so we can set you up.