Chapter 1.1 of ADR is the part of the agreement that sets the rules about the rules. It tells you when ADR applies at all, and then where it lets go. Those are two separate questions and they must be answered in that order. You cannot get out of something you were never in — if a load is outside scope, there is no exemption to claim, and if it is inside scope, the exemption has to be named and defended.
That last point matters more than most people expect. There is no authority that issues exemption certificates. Your organisation decides whether to rely on an exemption, and if it is ever challenged — by an enforcement officer at the roadside or in court — the burden of showing the conditions were met sits with you.
Scope: what ADR 1.1.2 actually captures
ADR applies to the carriage of dangerous goods by road across the territory of the Contracting Parties. Goods are either barred from international carriage altogether, or authorised subject to the conditions ADR lays down — classification, packagings and tanks, and the consignment procedures in Parts 2 to 9.
The working version for a driver is simpler than the legal text: if your transport document, the dangerous goods list in 3.2 Table A or your ADR manual says it is dangerous goods, you are in scope and every relevant part of ADR applies until something specific releases you.
| Question | Where it is answered |
|---|---|
| Is this substance dangerous goods? | Part 2 classification, 3.2 Table A |
| May it be carried at all? | 1.1.2, 3.2 Table A |
| What packaging or tank? | Parts 4 and 6 |
| What paperwork? | 5.4 transport document |
| What marking and placarding? | 5.3 |
| What equipment on the vehicle? | 8.1.5 |
The four shapes an exemption takes
Exemptions are where DGSA candidates lose marks, because they are not one thing. They come in four broad forms, and each carries its own conditions.
| Type | What it does | Typical examples |
|---|---|---|
| Complete exemption | ADR does not apply at all | 1.1.3.1 (a) private individuals, 1.1.3.3 fuel in vehicle tanks |
| Special provisions | Relief attached to a specific UN number | Column 6 of 3.2 Table A |
| Partial exemption | Some requirements drop away, others remain | 1.1.3.6 load thresholds, 3.4 limited quantities, 3.5 excepted quantities |
| Derogations | National or bilateral relief within one or more countries | Agreements under 1.5, domestic GB derogations |
A partial exemption is not a release. Under 1.1.3.6 the load may fall below the threshold and still require a transport document, a fire extinguisher and properly packaged goods. Read what the paragraph removes, not what you hope it removes.
The exemptions in 1.1.3 worth knowing cold
| Paragraph | Exemption | The condition that catches people out |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1.3.1 (a) | Private individuals carrying goods packaged for retail sale | Must be for personal, domestic, leisure or sporting use, and packaged against leakage in normal conditions of carriage |
| 1.1.3.1 (a) | Fuel carried by a private individual | No more than 60 litres per receptacle and 240 litres per transport unit |
| 1.1.3.1 (c) | Carriage by enterprises ancillary to their main activity | Ancillary only — building, civil engineering, surveying, repairs, maintenance. There is a quantity limit and it does not cover distribution |
| 1.1.3.1 (d) | Carriage by or under the supervision of emergency services | Limited to that purpose |
| 1.1.3.1 (e) | Emergency carriage to save human life or protect the environment | Measures must be taken to make the carriage wholly safe |
| 1.1.3.2 | Gases in vehicle equipment, food and drink on board, and similar | Each sub-paragraph has its own scope |
| 1.1.3.3 | Fuel in tanks of vehicles, including auxiliary engines and equipment | Covers propulsion and auxiliary equipment such as generators or refrigeration units |
| 1.1.3.6 | Quantities carried per transport unit | The “small load” threshold — a partial exemption, not a release |
The ancillary carriage exemption in 1.1.3.1 (c) is the one worth dwelling on. The industry shorthand is “tools of the trade”, which is not an ADR phrase and should not be treated as one. The sense behind it is sound though: the person carrying the dangerous goods is the person who is going to use them. The moment the movement becomes distribution — a company van taking drums from a depot to a site so someone else can use them — the exemption is gone, regardless of who owns the van or whether it is the same firm.
Do not read what you want to see. The exemption does not stretch because it would be convenient, and a load that has quietly grown past the limit needs the full ADR treatment: correct packaging, marking, a transport document under 5.4, placarding under 5.3, equipment under 8.1.5 and a driver holding the ADR certificate for that carriage. Running it as an “exempt” load because it used to be one is bad practice and an enforcement point.
The practical order of work
For any load, work in this sequence and the answer usually falls out:
- Classify. Is it dangerous goods at all under Part 2?
- Confirm scope. Is it in scope under 1.1.2, and is it authorised for carriage?
- Test complete exemptions in 1.1.3.1 to 1.1.3.5 — private individual, ancillary, emergency services, fuel in tanks.
- Test the partial reliefs — 1.1.3.6 thresholds, then 3.4 limited quantities and 3.5 excepted quantities.
- Write down which paragraph you relied on and why the conditions were met.
Step 5 is the one that gets skipped. A note on the file naming the paragraph, the quantity and the reasoning is what turns an assertion into a defence.
Our post on what the 1.1.3.6 calculator actually does covers the load-points arithmetic in detail, and if you are weighing up the DGSA qualification against the driver certificate, that comparison is here.
How ADR Driver Pro Fits Into This
Scope and exemptions sit in the core material, which is why they run through the app rather than living in one corner of it. ADR Driver Pro carries 1820 revision questions — 110 of them free — across 13 modules covering the core plus the individual hazard classes, with the core module carrying the 1.1.3 exemption questions and the conditions attached to each one.
The 6 driver routes matter here too: the exemption you can rely on depends on how the goods are carried, and the packages, tank, explosives and radioactive routes each treat the thresholds differently. The 5 calculators include the 1.1.3.6 load-points tool, which refuses to run on tank or bulk carriage precisely because that is a scope question rather than an arithmetic one. The 8 quick reference sets and 6 field tools keep the transport category table and the exemption conditions to hand offline, next to the load documents where the decision is actually made.
