DANGEROUS GOODS AHEAD

It is often said that dangerous goods’ handling compliance becomes an issue only when a non-compliant situation is discovered. We speak to Radharamanan Panicker, MD, DGMI, to know more.

- Chitman Kanwar Ahuja

Tell us about your journey with Dangerous Goods Management India. What challenges did you face in regards to entering the Indian market?

I was motivated to start DGM India by the owner of the DGM network Frank Petillon who convinced me to start DGM in India. I agreed to it because I felt that the Indian market required a quality compliance service channel. As the chemical business was becoming a major component of India’s GDP growth, and there was really nobody who understood the requirements of sending dangerous goods in packaged forms, we stepped into the picture. At that time, I was already working as the CEO of Cargo Service Center, so I took permission from the board to start this initiative with a partner. The company was registered in 2005, and the operations were started in a small way in May 2006. It was initially focused on supplying DG packaging material and some amount of packaging. In 2008, we started providing DG Regulation training for Air Cargo, after we got approval from Director General of Civil Aviation.

After I left Cargo Service Center in 2014, I fully immersed myself in the operations of DGM India. I bought the stake from my partner and became the Managing Director of the company. We moved our office and operations to the current industrial area in August 2014, to allow us to do a better job of packaging DG cargo. Slowly we expanded our training portfolio, providing DG Regulation courses for ocean freight also. We moved into our training facility instead of carrying out courses in hotels as others do, allowing us greater flexibility of timing and numbers. Currently DGM India’s Academy of Logistics is the only institute which formally provides a dangerous goods regulation course for air and ocean freight.