The Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) mandate training requirements for persons who prepare hazmat for shipment or who transport hazmat in commerce. The intent of the regulations is to ensure that each hazmat employee is familiar with the HMR, is able to recognize and identify hazardous materials, understands the specific HMR requirements applicable to the functions he or she performs, and is knowledgeable about emergency response, self-protection measures, and accident prevention methods. The regulations are performance based to provide a baseline set of training requirements while acknowledging the need for flexibility due to the diversity of the hazmat workforce.

         The United States Department of Transportation (US DOT) requires the shippers of regulated medical waste train their employees (including supervisors of the employees) that are involved with the shipping of regulated medical waste to ensure it is properly managed. It is the responsibility of the shippers to ensure their employees have the training and refresher training. Employees involved in shipping would include employees that are loading waste, packaging the waste, loading the trucks, shipping the waste, transporting the waste, signing manifests (shipping papers), and even managing the manifests for document retention. Each employee needs to have the HAZMAT training completed.