In its effort to increase transparency, PHMSA announced that performance packaging manufacture, design qualification and production test results will, for the first time, be made available to the public. PHMSA tests packagings to ensure they meet safe shipping standards. The PackSys database is an online information warehouse that contains all United Nations performance packaging that has been selected by the agency for compliance validations testing in accordance with the Hazardous Materials Regulations. PHMSA has purchased UN packaging samples on the open market for testing since 1996 to determine if the design performs as certified by the manufacturer.

The PackSys database link provides access to all completed testing cases. The available data includes, among other elements, the case date, respondent's name and address, package design-type, UN marking from the container, component parts for certain designs, results for each test series by number of failures, when the design failed a test series, and the case outcome. The information can be sorted and downloaded into either Excel spreadsheet or Adobe formats.

Since the inception of the testing program, over 500 hazardous materials packaging designs have been tested for PHMSA by the U.S. Army Materiel Command, Package, Storage and Containerization Center, Logistics Support Activity (LOGSA) located in Tobyhanna, Penn. For more than 50 years LOGSA has been the lead-services test facility for hazardous materials transportation packaging for the U.S. Department of Defense. The independent package testing and reporting by LOGSA is conducted through an interagency agreement with PHMSA in accordance with the Hazardous Materials Regulations, the same requirements that manufacturers follow to certify their packaging.

The database is now available on PHMSA's website at: http://phmsa.dot.gov/hazmat/enforcement/reports-documents.