Week 9 Lab: Dangerous Goods Paperwork Lab

Fill out a dangerous goods declaration for a real product category, and find out what compliance costs in friction, not just fees

19 April 2027

Before the lab#

Pick a real product category you could plausibly sell online that would trigger a dangerous goods declaration: a fragrance or aerosol (flammable liquid or gas), a lithium-battery device, or something similar. You don’t need the actual UN number memorised — you’ll look it up.

In the lab#

• Fill the fields — using Monday’s lecture, draft what your declaration would need to state: UN/ID number, proper shipping name, hazard class, packing group, IATA packing instruction number. Look up real values for your chosen product category where you can.
• Break it on purpose — pick one required field and imagine it’s missing or wrong on the declaration. What actually happens: does the carrier refuse the shipment outright, delay it for correction, or is there a fine involved? Be specific about which one, not just “it would be bad.”
• Separate the box from the paperwork — does anything about your product’s retail packaging (the tear-strip, the label, the box material) reduce how much declaration paperwork you need, or are the two entirely independent problems that both have to be solved?

Afterwards#

Keep your declaration draft. Week 11’s redesign studio treats compliance as one of six constraints held simultaneously — this lab is your first real attempt at pricing just this one.