Program does forms for hazardous goods

By ADAM GIFFORD

Auckland software house Kiwisoft Programs has developed a simple Windows software program, Haz-Form, which prints out the documentation needed when transporting hazardous goods.

The software was the idea of Terry Morris, managing director of industrial detergent manufacturer Chemical Solutions.

He said the Transport Department had been cracking down on the transportation of hazardous goods in the leadup to the introduction of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act.

"Manufacturers and freight companies have major responsibilities and the laws have real teeth.

"If a hazardous good, even something like 20lt of turpentine, is packed onto a truck without the right documentation, the person who packed it and the person who loaded it can be charged. The company can be charged, and the fines are up to $10,000.

"A lot of freight companies are pulling out of hauling dangerous goods, and the ones who do it charge top dollar."

The dangerous goods declaration, which by law must have a border of diagonal stripes, must be displayed prominently in the truck.

In an accident, the document gives emergency services an indication of the dangers present in the load.

Mr Morris said many manufacturers were not labelling goods properly and were not supplying proper documents. That was leading to incidents such as truck crashes that were followed by road closures while load documentation was found.

"Often the people packing the goods are not highly skilled and they've got enough to do without filling out forms.

"The bigger firms have custom-built systems, but there is nothing for the thousands of smaller firms out there. That's why we approached Kiwisoft."

Details of the chemicals his company uses are loaded into the database, along with information about customers and the freight companies it uses.

When a package is sent, the declaration details are filled out and four copies are printed on a laser printer.

Kiwisoft director Hal Salive said the program was being sold over the internet from www.hazform.com.

It costs $350 for a single-user licence or $495 for a network implementation.

A demonstration version could be downloaded for a five-day free trial.

He said Haz-Form was still evolving, and there were plans to make it suitable for larger companies by linking it to existing databases so documents could be automatically generated when dangerous goods were packed.