This is balderdash and it's shameful that the NAR puts this kind of drivel on their site. The only part that is real and true is that you must comply with the regulations. If you can build a high power rocket and launch it, you are indeed smart enough to ship hazardous materials. I have done it, and it's not hard. The steps:
1) Open a Fedex account
2) Pay $150 for their online training which covers how to ship hazardous materials and their process for doing the same
3) Tell your account manager you want to ship hazardous materials and they will enable your account to print the documents required
4) Figure out what class the hazardous materials you want to ship are. Fedex won't ship all hazardous materials, but they will ship most. The Fedex Hazardous materials table is located
here and spells that out.
5) Look at the entry for the item you want to ship. Model Rocket Motors are either 1.4C or 1.4S Also look at the UN/NA number to determine which class it is. This is the hardest part of the exercise. A few ways to figure it out. Look at how shipments are marked from people that ship these daily is the easiest.
You can read the description by Googling:
For instance, NA0276 says: This description applies to items previously described as “Toy propellant devices, Class C” and includes reloadable kits. Model rocket motors containing 30 grams or less propellant are classed as Division 1.4S and items containing more than 30 grams of propellant but not more than 62.5 grams of propellant are classed as Division 1.4C.
Practically, that means if each motor grain is less than 30 grams, it's 1.4S NA0323 If it's more than 30 but less than 62.5, its 1.4C NA0276
6) This next part is very important. Call Fedex and tell them what you plan to ship, and they will tell you if you are correct and help fill out the paperwork. All the forms required they send you for free and print out automatically from their online software, once your account is enabled to ship hazmat. They have folks that know the hazmat rules inside and out, and they are very helpful.
7) Prepare your shipment. There are box specifications for shipping hazmat. You can't recycle old amazon boxes. Needs to be a new carboard box with the proper burst strength. You learn about that in the fedex trainging
8) The software will fill out a 6 part form called OP-900 which contains the description of the contents and the account number, emergency contact, etc. You sign and date all 6 copies. The documents tells you where to put the copies, most of them fit into a plastic envelope and gets stuck to the box. You retain a copy. Then you print out all the hazmat shipments for the day, another document called OP-950A gets printed out which is the certification. You get a copy, and you put a copy in an envelope for the driver,
9)The last thing you need to do is annotate the proper hazard class on the box. One sticker has to have the 1.4C/S on it and must be commercially prepared. Uline sells them. The other you can make yourself or even write on the box which includes the UN/NA number and any EX numbers associated with it.,
So, your box has 4 stickers on it. The standard shipping label, the plastic pouch with the multicopy form OP-900, the orange triangular hazard class sticker and the UN/NA classification with EX numbers. You also need to print out the Hazardous materials cert and put it in an envelope for the driver.
10) Last is call Fedex to come pick it up. Fedex stores and dropoff locations will not accept hazardous materials. The request for pickup I think is $5, but it applies to all the shipments you are making, so it pays to let them accumulate so you have more than one going out with each shipment. Additionally, in addition to the normal ground freight charge, you also now pay $48 for the hazmat processing per shipment. All of this applies to GROUND shipments only. I'm sure UPS has similar rules if you prefer to use them.
Back a few years ago small arms primers became astronomically expensive, and I went through all of the above because I had several hundred thousand and sold some of them to thin the herd and take advantage of the ridiculous demand. I followed the rules above and never had an issue. IF you follow the steps, call the hazmat specialists at FEDEX and do what they say, you will be just fine.
Is this worth the time and effort to sell a single reload? Of course not. But if you are sitting on a mountain of motors, and you are leaving the hobby, don't let the scary hazmat rules scare you. You can do it!
