Transportation Safety
Our regulations and measures for transportation safety cover the delivery of raw materials, the handling and distribution of chemical products between BASF sites, warehouses and customers, and the transportation of waste.
At a glance
Zero
transportation incidents with significant impact on the environment
- Risk minimization along the entire transportation chain
- Risk assessment based on national and international dangerous goods regulations
- Regular review of logistics service providers
Strategy
We want our products to be loaded, transported and handled safely. This is why we depend on global standards, an effective organization and reliable logistics partners. Our goal is to minimize risks along the entire transportation chain – from loading and transportation to unloading. The transportation of dangerous goods is subject to mandatory national and international dangerous goods regulations as well as our global guidelines. The sites and subsidiaries are responsible for implementing transportation safety regulations and guidelines. Compliance is regularly monitored by the Environmental Protection, Health & Safety unit in the Corporate Center using globally standardized transportation safety reviews. External logistics partners are evaluated based risk either through assessments or on-site audits. BASF’s global network of experts ensures that information, insights and best practices are shared on an ongoing basis.
Preventive safety measures
National and international dangerous goods regulations are based on an assessment of transportation risks and set out rules and measures for safely transporting dangerous goods. We use various tools to minimize transportation risks. For example, for every dangerous good to be transported, we check in each case whether the packaging is suitable for the type of transport. We conduct digital dangerous goods checks before shipping orders are released. In addition, vehicles are subjected to a thorough dangerous goods check prior to loading and rejected if there are any issues.
Above and beyond this, we use our global requirement to specifically assess the safety and environmental risks of transporting and handling raw materials and sales products with high hazard potential. This is based on the Guidance on Safety Risk Assessment for Chemical Transport Operations published by the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC).
We stipulate worldwide requirements for our logistics service providers and assess them in terms of safety and quality. Our experts use our own evaluation and monitoring tools as well as internationally approved schemes such as the ship inspection reports issued by the Chemical Distribution Institute (CDI) and the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF).
Transportation incidents
To evaluate transportation safety, we systematically record transportation incidents according to defined criteria. We use the number of transportation incidents1 as a reporting indicator. In 2021, we recorded 21 transportation incidents worldwide (2020: 19).
A particular focus is incidents involving goods spillages that could lead to significant environmental impacts. These include dangerous goods leaks of BASF products in excess of 200 kilograms on public traffic routes, provided BASF arranged the transport. We recorded three incidents in 2021 with spillage of more than 200 kilograms of dangerous goods2 (2020: 2). None of these transportation incidents had a significant impact on the environment (2020: 0).
1 Data is collected based on the International Council of Chemical Association’s (ICCA) guidance for reporting performance and includes road, rail and container shipping incidents.
2 Hazardous goods are classified in accordance with national and international hazardous goods regulations.