Updated October 2026
More of an office catalog is flammable than most people expect, from air-dusters to solvent markers. These items ship under the DOT limited-quantity rules, so a warehouse has to know which SKUs they are before the first order goes out.
Several common office items are regulated hazardous materials, among them:
Many of them ship under the DOT limited-quantity exception, which took over the handling once called ORM-D. The exception has its own rules for marking each box, for how much goes in it and for how it travels. Following them starts with classifying each SKU when it arrives at the warehouse.
By The Fulfillment.com team
Think about what sits in an ordinary office:
Every one of these is a flammable hazardous material, and when a fulfillment warehouse ships it, it travels as a regulated parcel. A warehouse that treats every SKU the same will sooner or later send one out the wrong way.
These rules are public, and they apply whichever 3PL ships your products.
These items carry a propellant or a flammable solvent, and correction fluid has a solvent too. An aerosol can is UN1950, a Class 2 gas (Division 2.1 when flammable, and some dusters are 2.2), while rubber cement, solvent markers and correction fluid are Class 3 flammable liquids. The class is what brings in the rules on marking, quantity and routing. Often the hardest step is noticing it at all. On an office shelf, a flammable SKU rarely looks any different from the non-flammable one next to it.
Regulators allow a limited-quantity exception for small amounts in each inner package. It lowers the requirements for shipping these flammables, though it doesn't remove them. ORM-D (Other Regulated Material, Domestic) was a designation for consumer goods that has since been retired, and the handling it covered now falls under the limited-quantity rules. The exception is what makes an office-sized can of air-duster affordable to ship.
Each package shipped under the exception has the limited-quantity mark on its outer box. The mark is a square turned on its point, with the top and bottom corners filled in solid. It tells every carrier and handler along the way that the box holds a regulated limited-quantity material. A box that needs the mark and ships without it is out of compliance.
The exception caps how much flammable material can go in one package. Ground is the preferred route, because the rules for flammables are stricter in the air. An item that moves fine by truck under the exception can be limited or refused on a plane.
The exact marks, limits and routing restrictions are set by the regulations and change over time. What applies to a given SKU and shipment comes from the rules in force when it ships.
Every warehouse works under the same rules. What differs is whether a flammable SKU ships the right way on every order, at volume.
Some of this is the same for every catalog we take on. Product comes to us finished and sealed. We don't make, refill or remanufacture office or school supplies, and we never fill an aerosol or decant an adhesive; that work belongs to a manufacturer, and we're a 3PL. We give every SKU a handling class at receiving. We pick by the single unit, the pack, the case or the pallet, and we scan every pick, which is there to catch a mix-up between two office SKUs that look alike. Packing keeps carton size and the freight leg in view, and the whole flow is tracked in BestOMS, with Deposco behind it and Dropstream connecting your channels.
The rest varies from one warehouse to the next, so put three questions to any office-supplies 3PL, us included:
Get the answers written into your quote. Our buyer's guide has the other questions worth asking.
Aerosols such as air-dusters and spray adhesive are Class 2 gases under UN1950 (Division 2.1 when flammable, and some dusters are 2.2), and solvent items such as rubber cement and markers are Class 3 flammable liquids. Many of them can ship under the DOT limited-quantity exception, which took over the handling once called ORM-D. Each box carries the square-on-point limited-quantity mark and stays under a cap on how much it holds. Ground is the preferred route, because flammables face tighter limits in the air. Getting it right starts with classifying each SKU, so a flammable goes out the way its class allows rather than as an ordinary parcel. Bring us your SKU list and our team will go through the class, the mark and the shipping route each item needs.
It's a set of rules for shipping small amounts of certain hazardous materials in each inner package, and many flammable office items fall under it. It lowers the requirements for shipping them, but it doesn't remove them. ORM-D, short for Other Regulated Material, Domestic, was a related label for consumer goods. It has been retired, and the goods it covered now ship under the limited-quantity rules. Those rules call for the square-on-point mark on the outer box, a cap on how much each package holds, and ground as the preferred route. So the routine is the same as it was: classify the item, mark the box, stay under the limit and send it by ground.
They're flammable, and the rules for flammable hazardous materials are stricter on a plane than on a truck. An item that ships fine by ground under the limited-quantity exception can be restricted or refused by air, so ground is the default. A shipment typically gets refused or fined when one of these goes out as an ordinary parcel, with no mark and by the wrong service.
It starts when the SKU arrives. We give it a handling class at receiving, and our pick-and-pack system reads that class when an order comes in. Once we've classified a flammable, the system points it toward the route it's cleared for rather than an ordinary parcel. Ask any partner, us included, whether its system actually blocks the wrong route or relies on a packer reading the flag. Our team will show you how the flag is acted on for your SKUs.
Any partner shipping flammable office items has to classify them, put the limited-quantity mark on each box, keep to the quantity limits and send them by ground. On our side, every SKU gets a handling class at receiving, and our pick-and-pack system reads it. Which flammable items we can take on depends on the SKUs and the volume, so we start from your catalog. Send us your aerosol, adhesive and solvent-marker SKUs. Our team will go through how each one would be marked, packed and shipped.
No. We fulfill finished, sealed office and school supplies, and we don't make, refill or remanufacture anything. We also don't fill, decant or change an aerosol, adhesive or marker. When we kit, we put finished units together in a box. Our work starts when the sealed product arrives from your supplier.