The aim of establishing regulations for the international carriage of dangerous goods is to ensure safety and prevent accidents and damage to persons, property and the environment.

Updating the Regulation concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail (RID) in line with technical and scientific progress is an important activity within OTIF.

RID applies to international traffic and, via Directive 2008/68/EC, to national traffic within the EU Member States. The dangerous goods provisions are the result of close cooperation with the Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and they also apply to carriage by road and inland waterways.

Twice a year, OTIF and the UNECE organise an RID/ADR/ADN Joint Meeting which ensures simple multimodal transport for dangerous goods by rail, road and inland waterways.

For obvious safety reasons, RID has to be able to develop rapidly. Appendix C and its annex (RID) are revised every two years using the simplified procedure, in parallel with the revision of the UN Model Regulations, which contains recommendations for all modes of transport concerning the carriage of dangerous goods.

The working groups, the RID/ADR/ADN Joint Meeting and the RID Committee of Experts work to maintain regulations that reflect as closely as possible the reality of dangerous goods transport.