How to Ship Dangerous Goods with FedEx

Dangerous Goods, abbreviated DG, are substances that could potentially risk health, safety, property, or the environment during transport. To utilize FedEx DG capability, you will need to add DG to individual products. This article explains how to set up your dangerous goods in ShipHero to ensure they can be properly shipped using a FedEx method.

NOTE: Fedex enables dangerous goods shipping on a limited list of shipping methods, which may vary based on specific properties of the goods; visit https://www.fedex.com/en-us/service-guide/dangerous-goods.html for more information.

Please visit the following article for more information about How to Ship Dangerous Goods in ShipHero. 

Preparing your DG Products for Shipping with FedEx

In order to ship Dangerous Goods products with FedEx, you will need to enable the setting at the product level, then set up an automation rule to assign the DG product attributes to the order during the shipping process. Below are the steps you must follow in order for the products to ship correctly. 

Step 1: Select the Dangerous Goods Code for the Product in ShipHero

Enabling the DG setting for a product in ShipHero must be completed per SKU on the product details page.

Important Notes and Limitations:

• For multi-warehouse accounts, this setting will be automatically set for all warehouses the SKU exists in.
• The Dangerous Goods code does not transfer to the various UoM associated with the product and must be enabled separately if the UoM SKU is a line item on the order.   

How to Edit the Dangerous Goods Code 

1. Open the product details page for the SKU.
2. Click the Pencil Icon in the Details section to open the editing module.
3. Select the applicable Dangerous Goods Code from the dropdown.
4. Hit Update to save changes. 

Step 2: Contact FedEx's Dangerous Goods Hotline

In order to complete the next step, you will need to contact the FedEx Dangerous Goods hotline email, dghotline@fedex.com for the shipping parameters that need to be added to the order when shipping dangerous goods. FedEx will provide you with a JSON of the dangerous goods shipping parameters.

Information you will need to provide:

• Required: Name and Description of the product.
• Recommended: a link to the product page.

Example JSON:

Let’s say we have a lighter; this item falls under the dangerous goods category of “flammable gas.” FedEx will provide a JSON similar to the image below to make a flammable gas DG shipment.

Step 3: Create an Automation Rule

The final step to set up shipping Dangerous Goods with FedEx is to create an automation rule using the SKU as the trigger and the “Set FedEx Dangerous Goods” as the Action. After the rule is created, orders with such SKU should set the Dangerous Goods attribute on the order and be available to ship:

IMPORTANT NOTE: Once the Automation Rule is created, IT SHOULD NOT BE EDITED and/or UPDATED. This could cause the parameters set to be erased from the database. Should this happen, you will need to refill the Action field with the JSON FedEx provided.

1. Open the Automation Rules page.
2. Click Create New Rule.
3. Name the rule. We recommend including "DO NOT EDIT" at the beginning or the end of the rule name as an indicator for the entire team. 
4. Choose a Trigger; for this rule, you must use the SKU trigger; however, you can add other triggers to narrow the orders to target specifically for FedEx Shipping as needed. 
5. Choose an Action; select “Set FedEx Dangerous Goods” Action, fill the box with the JSON provided by FedEx. 

   Because these configuration parameters only work for FedEx, we recommend also using the Action to Set the Shipping Method, (Carrier: FedEx, Methods: Approved method by FedEx.)

   Fedex enables dangerous goods shipping on a limited list of shipping methods, which may vary based on specific properties of the goods; visit https://www.fedex.com/en-us/service-guide/dangerous-goods.html for more information.

6. Hit Create. 

Example: Dangerous Goods Automation Rule