INFOTRAC 24-Hour Emergency Response System
My family has always been made up of people who like to read. It starts with the little ones being read to by others and generally leads to a love of independent reading later in life. I saw the process start with the next generation during the recent United States’ holiday of Thanksgiving. In order to get the 18-month old to settle down for a nap his father read to him. Funny enough, the story was that of Chicken Little. For those that don’t remember the story it is about Chicken Little getting hit on the head by an acorn and thinks the sky is falling. To protect friends and family the character decides to go tell the king. On the way, Chicken Little meets various friends and proceeds to tell each of them that the sky is falling. Hearing the refrain of “the sky is falling” said throughout the telling of the story it got me thinking …
The Sky is… Not Falling?
What if rather than panicking about the event Chicken Little followed proper procedure? When handling hazardous materials there must be plans in place to handle accidents. This includes spills and injuries at your location and more importantly during transport. One such procedure is set in 49 CFR for US ground transportation. In Section 172.604 it states that an emergency response telephone number must be provided for use in an emergency involving a hazardous material. For Canada in the TDG Section 3.5 is where you find the requirements to include a “24-Hour Number” to be used for technical information regarding the transported goods. These same requirements for the US and Canada are repeated in the IATA state variations – USG-12 and CAG-09.
Something to note about these emergency numbers is they must be available at all hours of the day, each day of the week and every day of the year. A company number can certainly be used but that can be hard to manage. Many companies then default to using an outside or 3rd Party to handle emergency response. Let’s look at a few advantages.
Advantages of a 3rd Party Emergency Response System:
- There is always someone available to take the call. There is no need to worry about vacations, holidays, illness, etc.
- The call can be “interlinked” with Poison Control Centers for immediate first aid. This means no tracking down of an SDS or other vital information needed should an exposure occur.
- An evaluation is done on the situation and appropriate response information is given. Again, information related to fire-fighting, evacuations or other needed responses are provided quickly which can save lives and property.
- Contact is made with the site’s INFOTRAC Member alerting him/her to the situation and status. By taking this initiative, it leaves those at the accident site focused on the incident and not tracking down contact information.
- All calls are logged and recorded in case of future need. The calls can be used for training of internal staff or an evaluation of current procedures.
Sounds like a good deal, right? Let ICC Compliance Center help you. By registering through us we connect you with INFOTRAC, one of the top 3rd Party systems. For a yearly fee and some basic information, you are given the 24-hour number and a contract number to reference in the event of an emergency. INFOTRAC will have everything for your company at their fingertips to help you should you need it. All of those advantages are waiting for you.
Don’t be the Chicken Little of your company overreacting to emergencies or blowing them out of proportion. Take the lead and be prepared today.
