PHMSA’s 2025 Enforcement Priorities — What Retailers, Brands & Shippers Should Know

On November 20 2025, PHMSA issued a memorandum establishing its inspection and enforcement priorities for the Office of Hazardous Materials Safety (OHMS). For companies moving, storing or packaging hazardous materials—or even non-hazardous goods that sit beside them in a warehouse—this memo signals where regulatory attention will be focused in the coming period. At Smarter Sorting, we believe understanding these priorities helps brands, retailers and logistics teams get ahead of risk, strengthen compliance and design smarter packaging/sorting workflows.

Key takeaways from the memo

Here are the major points from the memo and what they imply for sorting, packaging and supply-chain operations.

1. Outreach priorities

PHMSA explicitly lists outreach as a priority:

• Increasing communication and engagement with hazardous materials shippers.
• Supporting shipper understanding and compliance with packaging selection requirements.
• Promoting proper classification of materials prior to shipment — classification is “fundamental” to safe transport. 

Implications for you:
If your operation includes any shipping of hazardous or potentially hazardous items (or items that might be mis-classified), this means:

• Training and documentation around packaging choice and classification need to be front of mind.
• Your internal workflows for sorting, labelling, packaging verification should align with classification-best practices.
• Engagement with logistics/transport providers around their hazardous-materials protocols may pay dividends.

2. Inspection priorities

PHMSA has outlined specific inspection targets:

• General hazardous materials shippers: i.e., the everyday shippers ensuring foundational compliance.
• Cylinder requalification facilities.
• Cylinder manufacturing (domestic & foreign).
• Drum manufacturing operations.
• Drum recertification entities.
• Follow-up inspections of companies with previous major safety violations (recidivism focus).
• Shippers of lithium batteries.
• Undeclared hazardous material shippers operating via e-commerce platforms.

Implications for you:

• If your supply-chain handles cylinders, drums or battery shipments, the inspection lens is sharpened.
• E-commerce platforms (or brands using e-commerce/freight networks) should especially scrutinize undeclared hazardous material risks (for example, lithium-battery shipments disguised as non-hazardous goods).
• Recidivist companies (i.e., those previously cited) should expect closer follow-up—good reason to show continuous improvement.
• Even “general” shippers are in scope: basic compliance matters.

3. Enforcement priorities

PHMSA sets out how it will execute enforcement with focus and discipline:

• Ensure timely and accurate case processing (e.g., within 180 days for warning letters or tickets).
• Focus on risk-based enforcement: violations that present the highest risk to public safety, environment and national security. 
• Promote national consistency and accountability: region-to-region uniformity in applying penalty guidelines and monitoring performance metrics. 
• Leverage data to drive strategic improvements: use analytics, enforcement trends and the case-management system to inform policy and compliance strategy.

Implications for you:

• The era of “minor oversight” may be waning; enforcement attention is being focused on higher-risk behaviors and repeat offenders.
• Having robust data, audits and compliance tracking will help: your internal data-story may be what separates you from high-risk peers.
• Uniformity matters: if your operations span regions or go through multiple carriers/manufacturers, consistency in how you classify, sort and document hazardous materials matters.
• Efficiency: since cases are expected to move through the system in a set timeframe, being proactive in response protocols pays.

What this means for sorted operations & product compliance

At Smarter Sorting, we work with brands, retailers and manufacturers to design smarter workflows around classification, packaging, sorting and compliance. Here are a few practical action steps prompted by this memo.

1. Audit your classification workflows.
   The memo emphasizes “proper classification of materials prior to shipment.” If your sorting or packing workflows rely on manual classification (or assume “non-hazardous” status by default), now is a good time to add guardrails. Can packaging teams easily identify items that may be lithium batteries, reactive chemicals, pressurized containers, etc.? Are you tracking shipments via e-commerce funnels that may slip existing oversight channels?
2. Strengthen packaging selection & verification.
   With inspection priorities on cylinders and drums manufacturing/recertification, and with packaging failures being a known root cause of incidents, ensure your packaging procurement, reuse/re-certification (if applicable), and verification processes meet the regulatory expectations. Do your drums have current recertification marks? Are your cylinders maintained and documented?
3. E-commerce platforms & undeclared shipments: a red flag.
   The memo explicitly calls out undeclared hazardous materials shipped via e-commerce platforms. For brands selling direct-to-consumer, via marketplaces, or via third-party logistics, examine the possibility of goods being mis‐declared to circumvent hazardous materials workflows (intentionally or unintentionally). Implement checks and education for your logistics partners.
4. Data, analytics and audit trails matter.
   Since enforcement will increasingly rely on data trends, your internal systems should generate auditable logs of classification decisions, packaging choices, labeling, training completions, and incident/near-miss tracking. This could become a differentiator in regulatory scrutiny.
5. Regional consistency and oversight across your operations.
   If you operate across multiple jurisdictions, carriers or warehouses, make sure the hazardous materials compliance standards are consistent. A weak link in one region can increase exposure. Document training, inspections and deviations uniformly.
6. Consider a “recidivism-safe” posture.
   If your organization or partners have had previous major violations, expect potential follow-up or higher scrutiny. Use this as an opportunity to refresh your culture: communication to staff, updated training, visible leadership support and documented compliance improvements.

How Smarter Sorting can help

Our expertise is in building smarter sorting and classification workflows that integrate with packaging, logistics and compliance systems. With the PHMSA memo as a backdrop, here’s how we can support you:

• Classification modelling to spot items with hazardous-material risk (including hidden/embedded risks like lithium batteries).
• Packaging verification workflows to ensure items go into appropriate containers (and reused/recertified containers comply).
• Audit dashboards and data-analytics to give you visibility into shipping streams, classification exceptions, packaging reuse rates and incident/near-miss tracking.
• Training frameworks and documentation templates tailored for multi-region operations and e-commerce channels.
• Integration with downstream carriers and marketplaces to flag potentially undeclared hazardous materials and enforce controls.

Final thought

The PHMSA memorandum is a clear signal: regulatory attention is tightening around classification, packaging integrity, e-commerce/undeclared shipments and data-driven enforcement. For brands, retailers and logistics teams, the message is simple: move from “just in compliance” to “ahead of compliance.”

If you’d like help auditing your hazardous-material classification workflows, packaging and sorting systems, or building a data-driven compliance dashboard, we’re here to help. Reach out and let’s make sure your operations are ready for what’s ahead.

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