The task of ensuring that the placard inventory is complete and up-to-date is a complex one that many entities struggle with. To maintain an inventory of a full set of placards that accounts for all of the potential combinations of placard type, classification number, and UN numbers, a company would have to constantly track the supply and usage of thousands of different hazardous material placards.

Alternatively, many companies opt to purchase a large number of generic placard types (e.g., "flammable" placards, "corrosive" placards, etc.) with either or both of the class number and UN number fields blank. Under such an approach, companies typically maintain a large inventory of stickers or number tiles that can be affixed to the generic placards as necessary to accommodate different hazardous material types. While reducing the size and complexity of maintaining the placard inventory, this approach requires companies to manage an inventory of stickers and/or number tiles.

Moreover, as conventional hazardous material placards circulate throughout the national and international transportation networks, they are inevitably re-used and sometimes altered to accommodate supply shortages. For example, it is relatively common for a placard to have its UN number modified to accommodate a given shipment, by changing a "1" to a "7" using a black marker or black tape. Similarly, while tape has been used to change the number "4" to a "1".

While such hand-numbering and alterations are not encouraged, they are an inevitable consequence of the conventional business practices relating to hazardous material placards because no matter how hard a company may try to keep its placard inventory complete, a situation will almost assuredly arise where a shipment of a given amount of hazardous material will be slated for transportation or storage and the proper placard is unavailable. In situations like these, companies are faced with a tough dilemma of whether to modify an existing placard to approximate the government-mandated placard or ship/store the hazardous material without the appropriate placard. Unfortunately, as evidenced by the volume of fines imposed on transportation companies for improper placarding, problems do exist in the field wherein shipments leave a terminal or warehouse without the appropriate placard. This not only violates government regulations but also creates a substantial safety problem.

Hazardous material placards perform an important safety role, in that, they allow firefighters and other emergency response personnel to quickly identify a potential problem and how that problem should be handled. For example, if a tractor-trailer full of particular kind of toxic or corrosive substance is involved in an accident, it is extremely important that responding emergency personnel be able to quickly and accurately identify the type of hazardous material involved. Such personnel typically possess manuals that identify response procedures for dealing with specific hazardous materials, and if the tractor-trailer is improperly placarded, a substantial breakdown in the safety process is created.

Further, the use of stickers or hand-numbering to create an appropriate placard from a generic placard allows for the introduction of human error into the placarding process. This human error may relate to the improper selection of numbers (e.g., transposing numbers such that "1409" is used as a UN number when "1049" was intended), or in inadequately affixing the number(s) to the placard such that the number(s) fall off the placard during movement of the hazardous material(s). Further still, the costs related to maintaining a sufficient inventory of placards and placard-related items (such as number stickers, etc.) is substantial. For a relatively small over-the-road transportation company, the placard inventory costs can be as much as $50,000 per year (not including any fines that such a company may incur for improper placarding citations). For large transportation companies or large manufacturers who ship large amounts of hazardous materials, the yearly placard inventory costs may reach six figures.

In an effort to solve these aforementioned problems in the art, Exeology has developed a system, method and apparatus that allows a user to print, on-demand, the appropriate placard for a hazardous material to be shipped or stored. Exeology alleviates the burdens related to maintaining a placard inventory and greatly reduces the amount of human error that can be introduced into the placarding system. Further, Exeology provides these benefits while reducing the placard related cost borne by a company because placard supply is optimized to exactly match placard demand via an elegantly simple low-cost on-demand placard production.

Exeology is a stand alone system. The software is powered by an HP1510y series computer using the new Microsoft Business Vista Operating System. This system drives the HP 2800 business printer and delivers any DOT compliant placard with the push of a button. Contact us for more information.