NMFTA’s effort to reimagine freight classification has reached its crescendo for 2023, with a new set of changes and updates to the National Motor Freight Classification® (NMFC®).
As part of the continuing effort to simplify, streamline and modernize the NMFC, the National Motor Freight Traffic Association’s (NMFTA) Freight Classification Development Council (FCDC) has decided on priorities and will soon publish them by issuing this year’s third major supplement to the NMFC.
The changes were published in Disposition Bulletin 1367 of Docket 2023-3.
The supplement, which will be issued on November 2, and is scheduled to take effect on December 2, streamlines seven generic headings, which include:
- Barrels
- Burial case
- Foodstuffs
- Grain products
- Safes or Safe or Vault Parts, Fire or Burglar Proof
- Wallboard
- Washers; gaskets; or packing devices, forms or shapes other than packaging
All the above headings were consolidated or shrunk – a continuation of the classification reimagination and simplification strategy.
Other provisions, while not shrunk down or consolidated, were modified for the purposes of simplicity. These include:
- Chairs, electric or mechanical with or without hydraulic or power operational basis
- Hammocks
- Incinerators
- Rubber floor mats
- Synthetic fiber paper or paper board
- Tank-type water heaters
A major component of the classification reimagining is the combining of like items wherever possible.
“This continued streamlining will make it easier for shippers to look for the most specific NMFC item that applies to the product being shipped,” said Adam Mercer, classification development manager for NMFTA. “The more we streamline provisions of the classification, the easier we make it for the NMFC system users.”
Each year the team develops three dockets that contain proposed updates and changes. The changes referenced here come from the third of those three dockets for 2023.
Users of the NMFC can find the information they need to classify their freight by using the NMFC book or by using the digital online equivalent known as ClassIT.
