Preface

The standards contained herein have been developed by the Institute for Supply Management - Rail Industry Forum (ISM-RIF) Packaging Standards Subcommittee (PSS). This subcommittee is composed of sourcing/purchasing and supply/material officers of North American railroad companies, major builders and railroad suppliers. The purpose of these standards is to provide packaging guidelines to railroad industry suppliers which will meet certain criteria. The criteria by which these standards are developed include safety, regulatory, environmental impact, customer satisfaction, distribution and warehousing impact as well as cost. The supply industry must be able to provide packaging to these standards, if so requested by their customers. The application of these standards is strongly recommended as their widespread use will yield benefits to both the supply and rail industries. It should be noted that the package quantity given in a ISM standard does not represent a minimum order quantity as the standard applies only where quantities ordered are equal to or in excess of the standard package quantity. Rail Industry companies shall be responsible for communication of these standards to their suppliers. It is recommended, that in so doing, they reference the standards on Quotation Requests and Purchase Orders when appropriate. It is further recommended that industry Quality Assurance inspectors audit a supplier's packaging procedures in accordance with these standards. Inquiries, recommendations or requests concerning this manual should be made of your company PSS or ISM-RIF representative. In the event that your company does not have a PSS nor ISM-RIF representative, contact a PSS member.

Notice of Liability and Caution

The information in this manual is distributed on an "as is" basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this manual, the authors shall not have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in the manual. It remains the responsibility of the users of this manual to establish appropriate safety and health practices and to determine the applicability of regulatory requirements in conjunction with its use. ISM standards are subject to periodic review, and therefore users need to ensure they are using the latest information from the website.

Revised 10/01