The ADR Agreement is the „Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road“ and was concluded in Geneva on September 30, 1957 under the guidance of the UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe). In Germany, it was enacted on January 29, 1968, and was known until 2020 as the „European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road.“

TODAY

Since 2021 it has been known as the „Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road“. The agreement contains special regulations for road transport with regard to packaging, load securing and labeling of dangerous goods. France and Germany were initially signatories. However, all EU states are now also considered ADR signatories, as it was made legally valid by an EU regulation.

The forerunner of today’s ADR is the handling of transportation by rail. And a regulation had already been found for the transportation of compressed gases and flammable liquids in commercial law. However, this was rather slow for all road transport. The issue of tankers posed yet another hurdle, as these are expensive and durable assets. Initially, separate regulations had to be developed rather than short-term regulations.

REGULATION FINALLY IN SIGHT?

An agreement was initially reached in 1968. However, the directives did not come into force for the time being as they wanted to wait for the Europe-wide negotiations. In the end, this took a total of around 6 years until it came into force for international transport on January 1, 1970. Because many questions still had to be clarified, a transitional regulation was initially introduced in Germany on July 23, 1970, the so-called Damage Protection Ordinance.

On September 1 of the same year, the ADR for international transport finally came into force for domestic transport in the Federal Republic of Germany.