What 172.204(a) means in plain language
When you transport hazardous materials, your shipping papers must include a telephone number for emergency response contact. This number allows first responders—police, fire, hazmat teams—to reach someone who can provide critical safety information if something goes wrong during transport or at an accident scene.
The requirement is straightforward: every hazmat shipment's documentation must clearly display an active emergency contact phone number. This isn't about having a number somewhere in your truck or your carrier's office. It must be on the shipping papers themselves, accessible to anyone who needs it in an emergency.
If an inspector finds that your shipping papers are missing this phone number, you will be cited for 172.204(a), regardless of whether you have that information available elsewhere or whether an actual emergency occurred.
What our enforcement data actually shows
This citation is extremely rare in our inspection records. Across 13 million inspections, we see only 4 all-time citations for 172.204(a). Over the last 12 months, there have been 0 citations, and in the last 90 days, 0 citations. This makes 172.204(a) ranked #2480 of 3,036 FMCSR codes by citation volume.
None of the 4 carriers cited for this violation were placed out of service, resulting in a 0.0% out-of-service rate. This contrasts sharply with the all-FMCSR average OOS rate of 31.4%, indicating that inspectors treat missing emergency contact numbers as a correctable paperwork issue rather than an immediate safety threat that warrants removing the vehicle from service.
The rarity of enforcement suggests that most drivers and carriers are complying with this requirement or that inspectors encounter it infrequently during roadside checks.
Who gets cited most
Our inspection records show only 4 citations for 172.204(a) in all-time data, distributed among four different carriers: Reeves Construction Company (USDOT 367836), PI Jon Inc (USDOT 922559), Venezia Liquid Tank Lines Inc (USDOT 1079977), and Prest Xspress LLC (USDOT 2422487). Each carrier appears once in the citation record. Because the citation volume is so low, state-level patterns are not meaningful in our dataset.
The vehicles cited represented a mix of makes: Chevrolet, Freightlin, Kenworth, and Stoughton, with one citation each. This diversity suggests the violation is not concentrated in any particular equipment type or carrier segment.
How severe is this compared to similar codes
Hazmat paperwork and documentation violations fall into a spectrum of severity. Our data shows that general loading and unloading hazmat violations (177.834A-HMC and 177.834(a)) are far more common and serious, with 3,954 and 3,839 citations respectively, and out-of-service rates of 99.2% and 97.9%—indicating those are treated as critical safety stops.
Placarding violations (177.817(a)) occur more frequently at 2,274 citations with a 75.1% OOS rate. In contrast, 172.204(a)'s 0.0% OOS rate aligns most closely with 172.602(c)(1) (Maintenance/accessibility of Emergency Response information), which has 1,464 citations and a 0.0% OOS rate. This suggests that missing or inaccessible emergency contact information is treated as a documentation deficiency to be corrected, not an immediate removal-from-service hazard.
How to avoid it
Preventing a 172.204(a) citation is straightforward and involves a pre-trip paperwork check:
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Review your shipping papers before departure. Before you leave the dock, look at every page of your hazmat shipping documentation. Confirm that an emergency response telephone number—a working, monitored phone line—is clearly printed or written on the papers.
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Verify the number is current and monitored. The phone number must be active and answered during transport hours. If your company's hazmat hotline has changed or operates only during business hours, update the shipping papers accordingly.
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Check all pages of multi-page shipments. If you are carrying multiple hazmat shipments, ensure each set of shipping papers includes the emergency number. Do not assume it appears on only the first page.
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Keep papers legible and accessible. The number must be easy to read at a glance. Faded copies, small print, or papers wedged in a folder make the information hard for an inspector or first responder to locate quickly.
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Confirm compliance before loading. Make this part of your pre-trip inspection routine. If papers are missing the number, contact your dispatcher or shipping department to obtain corrected documentation before you move the vehicle.
This violation is entirely preventable through a few minutes of paperwork verification at the start of your shift.