Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Lithium Batteries as Cargo in 2016 - IATA


Additional Changes for Lithium Ion Batteries

On 22 February the ICAO Council adopted the recommendation of the ICAO Air Navigation Commission (ANC) that lithium ion batteries, UN 3480, Packing Instruction 965 only, be forbidden, on an interim basis, as cargo on passenger aircraft. The prohibition does not apply to lithium ion batteries packed with equipment or lithium ion batteries contained in equipment, UN 3481, Packing Instruction 966 and Packing Instruction 967 respectively.
The prohibition becomes effective 1 April 2016, as applies to the requirements that lithium ion batteries, UN 3480, PI 965, to be shipped at a state of charge of no more than 30% of their rated capacity, and other changes advised through the addendum to the 57th edition of the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR) issued in January of this year.
A further addendum to the DGR will be issued later this week to align with the issuance of Addendum 4 to the ICAO Technical Instructions. The addenda to the DGR are available from the IATA website at:

The final changes for lithium batteries effective 1 April 2016 are as follows.

Changes to the Provisions for Lithium Batteries Effective 1 April 2016

  1. UN 3480, PI 965, Section IA and IB. Lithium ion cells and batteries must be offered for transport at a state of charge (SoC) not exceeding 30% of their rated design capacity. Cells and/or batteries at a SoC of greater than 30% may only be shipped with the approval of the State of Origin and the State of the Operator under the written conditions established by those authorities.
UN 3480, PI 965, Section IA and IB are forbidden for carriage on passenger aircraft. All packages must bear the Cargo Aircraft Only label in addition to the other marks and labels required by the Regulations.
Note:
Guidance and methodology for determining the rated capacity can be found in the UN Manual of Tests and Criteria, 5th Revised Edition, Amend. 1 and Amend. 2, Section 38.3.2.3.
  1. UN 3480, PI 965, Section II. Lithium ion cells and batteries must be offered for transport at a state of charge (SoC) not exceeding 30% of their rated design capacity.
  All packages prepared in accordance with Section II of PI 965 are forbidden for carriage on passenger aircraft. All packages must bear the Cargo Aircraft Only label in addition to the other marks and labels required by the Regulations.
A shipper is not permitted to offer for transport more than one (1) package prepared according to Section II in any single consignment.
Not more than one (1) package prepared in accordance with Section II of PI 965 may be placed into an overpack. When the package is placed in an overpack, the lithium battery handling label and Cargo Aircraft Only label required by this packing instruction must either be clearly visible or the label must be affixed on the outside of the overpack and the overpack must be marked with the word “Overpack”.
  1. UN 3090, PI 968, Section II. A shipper is not permitted to present for transport more than one (1) package prepared according to Section II in any single consignment.
Not more than one (1) package prepared in accordance with Section II of PI 968 may be placed into an overpack. When the package is placed in an overpack, the lithium battery handling label and Cargo Aircraft Only label required by this packing instruction must either be clearly visible or the label must be affixed on the outside of the overpack and the overpack must be marked with the word “Overpack”.
  1. Packages prepared according to Section II of PI 965 and PI 968 must be offered to the operator separately from other cargo and must not be loaded into a unit load device (ULD) before being offered to the operator.
      
    Source

Friday, February 12, 2016

Groupon and the worst customer support ever

I've been a loyal customer of Ideel for 5 years. We've made dozens of purchases there. But when Groupon has bought Ideel we've started spending less time on its web-site. Still it was not that bad.

Everything has changed after Ideel moving to the Groupon web-site. After reading about this news I found out that I could get my promotional credits refunded. On January 13, 2015 I contacted Ideel support via ideel@groupon.com. Several days later I got a reply that they apologize for the delay and will refund the amount to my debit card.

The money supposed to appear in 3-5 business days. A month later I still can't get the refund. And the problem is that Groupon support is the worst one I have ever contacted. They don't try to solve your problem at all. And they don't even try to read your quoted message.

Several replies had messages saying I had no credits at all or my credits have expired. And this is despite of the fact that the $50 refund was approved before. No to mention that I got yet another $25 promotional credit after January 13th. When I told support about it, they replied several times that they can't find any orders associated with my e-mail. When I sent them my e-mail they asked me about the problem I had or asked me to provide the order number, despite the fact that everything was quoted in the e-mail.



In my last message I wrote everything about the problem once again mentioning my e-mail at Ideel. Nevertheless the support wrote "I'm unable to find any orders under" my e-mail address. They go in circles without even trying to read the question. It seems like Groupon support needs lots of support, because from my experience it is totally useless.

Will I recommend Groupon or buy from them again? Hell no.