[pct-l] shipping fuel canisters

[Ken Powers]

The quote on White Blaze refers to UPS not USPS. I have talked to both UPS 
and FedEx about shipping small quantities (Consumer Commodity) of fuel. In 
order to ship any fuel I had to register as a Hazmat shipper. Oodles of 
paper work that I didn't even look at, other than the size.

There has been a change in regulations for the trucking industry regarding 
the shipping of hazardous gases and/or liquids. So far the Postal 
Regulations have not changed.

You can still ship fuel at the Post Office by labeling your package "ORM-D 
Consumer Commodity" and "Ground Only".   The primary container (canister) 
must be metal and the volume is less that 1 liter per package (mail piece in 
USPS jargon). see paragraph 10.12.3 on this page: 
http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/601.htm#wp1065036   The way I read it you can 
ship two 110 gram canisters or one 220 gram canister in each package. A 
thru-hiker is unlikely to want to mail more than that.

Paragraph 10.14 addresses solid fuels, i.e.  Esbits. If securely packaged 
they can also be shipped as "ORM-D Consumer Commodity".


All the info on http://www.gottawalk.com/shipping_fuel.htm is still correct 
except that USPS reorganized their webpages. Follow the link above to find 
the same information on a new webpage.

I recommend you take a printout of my webpage to the Post Office when you 
mail your first package containing fuel. (You may want to take it along 
every time, in case you get a new postal clerk.) Be nice, but persistent 
with the postal clerks. If they look into the postal regulations they will 
find fuel can be shipped in small quantities.

Ken

PS   Thanks to everyone who sent me a copy of this post.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ryan Hull" <rynos1234 at gmail.com>
To: "pct-l" <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2011 2:03 PM
Subject: [pct-l] shipping fuel canisters


I don't want to add to the confusion of using canister stoves, but
apparently the common reference of
http://www.gottawalk.com/shipping_fuel.htmI is incorrect about shipping fuel
canisters.  I just stumbled across this posting on whiteblaze:
http://whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=8311&page=6.  Scroll down a bit
to see the update.  As of 2009, fuel canisters cannot be shipped without a
hazmat fee due to the fact that most butane canisters can actually hold more
than the 4 ounces of fuel they are shipped with.
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