PHMSA's primary mission under the Federal laws governing the transportation of hazardous materials is to protect people and the environment from the risks inherent in the transportation of hazardous materials by pipelines and other modes.

PHMSA's Hazmat Enforcement Office serves to ensure transportation safety by conducting compliance, incident and accident inspections and investigations; performing safety, performance and regulatory adequacy and fitness determinations; executing outreach, education and training activities; and providing feedback, information and intelligence through its nationwide operations. Inspecting entities that offer hazardous materials for transportation; and that manufacture, requalify, rebuild, repair, recondition, or retest packaging (other than cargo tanks and tank cars) used to transport hazardous materials.

PHMSA has available a full range of enforcement tools to ensure that the hazardous material transportation industry takes appropriate and timely corrective actions for violations, respond appropriately to incidents, and that they take preventive measures to preclude future failures or non-compliant operation.

Having a number of enforcement tools to use for noncompliance, PHMSA's Hazardous Materials Enforcement program may issue Letters of Warning and Tickets for less serious violations. However, the program refers matters which are believed to compromise safety to PHMSA's Office of Chief Counsel for appropriate sanction which includes Notices of Probable Violation and Corrective Action and Compliance Orders. The Federal hazardous materials transportation law authorizes PHMSA to assess a civil penalty of not less than $250 nor more than $50,000 per violation, or to refer matters for criminal prosecution.

PHMSA possesses jurisdictional enforcement authority over all modal hazardous materials transportation activities under the hazardous materials regulations (HMR), PHMSA primarily focuses its enforcement and oversight on non-bulk, intermediate bulk, compressed gas cylinder, and special permit and approval packaging. Including hazardous materials shippers and some carriers, PHMSA's exclusive jurisdictional area on packaging is and has historically been assigned through an inter-agency agreement amongst the Department's modal administrations. Sharing enforcement and oversight with its modal partners on hazmat shippers, PHMSA also possesses a unique and specialized expertise in hazmat packaging.