Limited quantity mark (black-and-white diamond)
The box holds dangerous goods in small inner containers — for example bottles of perfume, aerosols, paint or cleaning products — packed under the limited-quantity rules, which spare them most other dangerous-goods requirements.
Who puts it on the box
The sender (the consignor), usually a shop or manufacturer packing retail-size products.
How to read it
It tells a handler that the contents are dangerous goods in consumer sizes, without saying which: no class label is needed. Each dangerous good has its own maximum per inner container, and the box may weigh no more than 30 kg (20 kg for a shrink-wrapped tray), as the HSE summary of ADR 3.4 explains. The Y version means the package also meets the air limits.
What it does not promise
It does not promise the contents are harmless — they are dangerous goods, only in small containers — and it does not name the hazard: the products’ own labels (for example the GHS flame on an aerosol) do that.
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 set on its point with the top and bottom corners filled black and a white band across the middle. With a black letter Y in the middle it is the version for air transport. At least 100 × 100 mm, or 50 × 50 mm on small packages.
- Regulation
- ADR 2025, section 3.4.7 (limited quantity mark) and 3.4.8 (the “Y” mark for air); UN Model Regulations Chapter 3.4
- 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
- LQ mark; Limited quantities diamond; Y mark (air)
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) — Limited quantities (ADR 3.4): marking per 3.4.7 and 3.4.8, the plain diamond or the version with Y when an air journey is involved, minimum 100 × 100 mm or 50 × 50 mm; 30 kg package limit (20 kg shrink-wrapped trays); examples with hydrochloric acid, drain cleaner and paint. Checked 2026-09-27.
- Law adopting the same mark — US Government Publishing Office (govinfo), 49 CFR, edition of 1 October 2024: 49 CFR § 172.315 Limited quantities (the limited quantity mark and the “Y” mark) — The US rule for the same mark: top and bottom of the square-on-point black, centre white; border at least 2 mm; each side at least 100 mm unless the package needs a smaller mark of at least 50 mm; the “Y” version for air. Checked 2026-09-27.