Firefighters and police can prevent or reduce the amount of damage or injury at the scene if they know what hazardous materials are being carried. Your life, and the lives of others, may depend on quickly locating the hazardous materials shipping papers. For that reason, you must tab shipping papers related to hazardous materials or keep them on top of other shipping papers. In a pouch on the driver's door, or In clear view within reach while driving, or On the driver's seat when out of the vehicle. Lists of Regulated Products Placards are used to warn others of hazardous materials.
Placards are signs put on the outside of a vehicle which identify the hazard class of the cargo.
A placarded vehicle must have at least four identical placards. Placards must be readable from all four directions. Cargo tanks and other bulk packaging display the identification number of their contents on placards or orange panels. Not all vehicles carrying hazardous materials need to have placards. The rules about placards are given in Section 9 of this manual.