Excepted quantity mark (hatched square with a number)
The box holds tiny amounts of dangerous goods — typically 30 ml or 30 g per inner container, or 1 ml or 1 g for the more toxic ones — shipped under the excepted-quantities rules.
Who puts it on the box
The sender (the consignor), often a laboratory or a supplier of samples, test kits or reagents.
How to read it
The figure inside is the hazard class of the contents, for example 3 for a flammable liquid. The ADR code E0–E5 of each substance sets the limits: E1 allows up to 30 g or 30 ml per inner packaging and 1 kg or 1 litre per package, and E0 means the exemption is not available, as HSE summarises.
What it does not promise
It does not promise the contents are harmless or allowed in the post, and it gives no handling instruction: the amounts are so small that most other dangerous-goods rules do not apply.
A mark on a parcel is the sender’s statement about what is inside and how it should be handled. It is not a certificate that the parcel is packed safely, that anyone handled it as marked, or that your carrier accepts it: for what you may send, read the carrier’s own terms.
- What it looks like
- A square with a hatched border (black or red) and a small symbol inside, where the sender fills in the hazard class number (marked * in the rules) and, if not elsewhere on the box, the sender’s or recipient’s name (**). At least 100 × 100 mm.
- Regulation
- ADR 2025, section 3.5.4 (excepted quantities mark); UN Model Regulations Chapter 3.5
- Kind of mark
- A dangerous-goods mark or label from the UN Model Regulations, applied in Europe by ADR (road) and its sister agreements for rail and waterways, and on the same pattern by the US 49 CFR. It says the package holds dangerous goods.
- Also called
- EQ mark; Excepted quantities mark; E mark
Related
Other marks with the same shape
Sources
Each document was fetched and read on the date shown. Written in our own words; quotations are the documents’ wording.
- Regulator guidance — Health and Safety Executive (UK regulator for the carriage of dangerous goods): Carriage of dangerous goods manual — Main exemptions: limited quantities (ADR 3.4) and excepted quantities (ADR 3.5) — Excepted quantities (ADR 3.5): combination packages only; codes E0–E5 in column 7(b) of Table A, E1 = 30 g or 30 ml inner and 1000 g or 1000 ml outer; packages marked with the EQ symbol, * = label number, ** = consignor or consignee name. Checked 2026-09-27.
- Law adopting the same mark — US Government Publishing Office (govinfo), 49 CFR, edition of 1 October 2024: 49 CFR § 173.4a Excepted quantities (with the excepted quantities mark) — The US rule for the same mark: * is replaced by the hazard class, ** by the shipper or consignee name; square, hatching black or red, at least 100 × 100 mm; inner limits 30 g/30 ml, or 1 g/1 ml for toxic PG I or II. Checked 2026-09-27.