Fireworks.org – The World’s Fireworks Community › Forums › Transportation › How much consumer fireworks can you actually haul in a personal car before it counts as ‘transporting explosives’?
- AuthorPosts
Buddy of mine has a truck and we’re pooling our Labor Day stash in one trip. Got me thinking though — at what point does a trunk full of 1.4G cakes and shells stop being ‘personal use’ and become something you need a HazMat endorsement or whatever for?
Like, is there a hard weight number? I vaguely remember hearing something about 50 lbs or 100 lbs being a cutoff but can’t recall if that was actual law or just forum talk. Anyone actually looked into the regs for transporting consumer fireworks in a regular car?
tbh I looked this up a while back and it’s more about the DOT classification than some magic pound number. Consumer fireworks are 1.4G which is the ‘minor blast’ category, and the weight limit for anyone without a CDL/HazMat is generally 1,000 lbs gross weight of the articles per vehicle. That’s a LOT of cakes. Practically nobody is hitting that in a pickup.
The 1,000 lb number Jim’s throwing out is right for federal DOT, but don’t forget state and local rules can be stricter. Some highways have their own fireworks transport bans you’d never think about. Also if you’re crossing any state line you’re in interstate territory and that changes things — even if both states allow consumer fireworks, the specific products have to be legal at the destination.
Good thread. Not legal advice obviously, but the short version: 1.4G consumer fireworks under 1,000 lbs don’t need HazMat for personal transport, but the DOT does still treat them as hazmat for shipping purposes, which is why retailers ground-ship with orange placards. If you just want the state-by-state rules on what’s legal to even HAVE, there’s a post in the Rules section here that breaks the new regs down better than I can in a reply.
- AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.