On January 14, 1998, the Chief Counsel issued an Order to Custom Corrugated Box Corp. (Respondent) assessing a penalty in the amount of $7,400 for two violations of the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR). The Order found that Respondent had knowingly represented, marked, certified, offered and sold fiberboard boxes, marked UN 4G as meeting the requirements of the HMR, when design qualification testing had not been conducted (violation No. 1), and that Respondent had failed to train its hazmat employees (violation No. 2). The Order modified the $9,900 civil penalty originally proposed in the May 30, 1997 Notice of Probable Violation (Notice).

The Respondent submitted a timely appeal of the Order by letter dated January 23, 1998. Although the issuance of warning letters is authorized by 49 C.F.R. § 107.309, this is not an appropriate case for that sanction because of the serious nature of these two violations. As in this case, the absence of training is often the root cause of substantive violations of the HMR. Without testing, there is no assurance that a packaging will safely contain hazardous materials during normal transportation. Moreover, in addition to marking the UN performance standard certification on the outside of the box, Respondent separately certified in writing to its customer that the boxes had been "manufacture[d] and test[ed] in compliance with" the requirements in the HMR. I have determined that there is not sufficient information to warrant mitigation of the civil penalty assessed in the Chief Counsel's Order. I find that a civil penalty of $7,400 is appropriate.