Overview
Shipping with dry ice requires special handling and compliance with carrier regulations. Both FedEx and UPS allow dry ice shipments under specific conditions to ensure safety during transport. This article outlines the general rules, setup steps, and how Pacejet supports these shipments. For all types of hazardous or dangerous goods shipments, always comply with proper carrier and governmental regulations and required training.
General Guidelines and Carrier Information for Dry Ice Shipments
Dry ice is properly declared as a hazardous material: UN1845, Carbon Dioxide, Solid.
Allowable weight varies by carrier, for example 200kg per package or 2.5kg for air.
Requires "Dry Ice" labeling and indication of the net weight of dry ice.
Shipment must comply with IATA (air) or DOT (ground) regulations.
Dry ice may be accepted as an Excepted Quantity material.
Always refer to UPS and FedEx dangerous goods documentation.
Air shipments can show the ICE indicator because dry ice is treated as a Dangerous Goods item (UN1845). However, Ground shipments may be considered non-hazardous (as long as the package only contains non-hazardous goods, e.g., food), so they do not trigger the ICE label indicator in UPS systems.
How Dry Ice Works in Pacejet
Pacejet supports dry ice shipments via native integration with both FedEx and UPS parcel APIs.
Users can:
Add dry ice as a Shipment Service to apply to all packages in a shipment.
Automatically generate compliant shipping labels with dry ice indicators.
Dry ice handling is typically configured and applied dynamically at ship-time.
Use Cases for Dry Ice Shipments
Pharmaceutical Companies: Shipping temperature-sensitive vaccines or test kits.
Food Distributors: Delivering frozen meat or seafood to retail stores.
Lab Suppliers: Sending biological specimens to research facilities.
Meal Kit Providers: Ensuring freshness during overnight delivery.
Setup in Pacejet
Carrier Setup
Ensure FedEx and/or UPS parcel services are enabled for dry ice.
Confirm dry ice is supported on service levels used (e.g., FedEx Express Saver).
Setting Up Shipment Services
Pacejet supports the use of Shipment Services to indicate the presence of dry ice and automatically communicate this information to carriers. A set of unique Shipment Services can be configured for each weight (in KGs) of dry ice to be used.
Configure each required Shipment Service using the format “DRY_ICE_CONTENTS_nnKG” where nn is the weight in KGs for this service.
Follow the steps below:
From the main menu, click Admin, Location Setup, Carrier, and then click Shipment Services.
Click the + icon to begin adding each Shipment Service that you plan to use.
Add a Code and a Description.
Click Is Active to activate the Shipment Service.
Click Save.
Repeat steps 2-5 to configure multiple Shipment Services to meet your needs, for example, DRY_ICE_CONTENTS_5KG, DRY_ICE_CONTENTS_6KG, DRY_ICE_CONTENTS_2KG, etc.
From the main menu, click Admin, Location Setup, Carrier, and then click Carrier.
Click the checkbox for either the FedEx or UPS to link each Shipment Service to the carriers where you will use it.
Click the + icon to add each service under each carrier.
Click the Shipment Services tab.
Click the + icon.
In the Code dropdown list, select the dry ice Shipment Service.
Optionally, populate the other fields.
Click Done.
Repeat this process for UPS or FedEx if you plan to use both carriers.
Shipment Services should be linked to each carrier where you plan to use it.From the main menu, click Admin, Location Setup, Carrier, and then click Shipment Services to verify that each dry ice service has been linked to a carrier.
Click the links (
) to display the carriers attached to each of your dry ice services.
Processing a Dry Ice Shipment
You can process a simple dry ice shipment using a shipment via integration or a starting from a template.
Enter or confirm your basic shipping data, including addresses and packages.
Select the appropriate Shipment Service, such as Dry Ice 2 KG shown below:
Select Rate Shipment or Ship as part of your normal shipping process.
On the Confirmation page, note the service indicator for dry ice.
Preview labels and take note the "ice" or "dry ice" indicator on the labels from UPS and FedEx. Some services may not display this indicator (e.g., Ground).
Process a shipment using dry ice with rate shopping across both UPS and FedEx carriers.
Enter shipment details as before, including selection of the appropriate dry ice Shipment Service as appropriate.
Run standard rating and select the appropriate class of service from the carrier of your choice.
Process a mutli-package shipment with a carrier (e.g., FedEx) using the same process described above.
Each package should be processed with the same dry ice settings.Enter the shipment details as you did in the previous steps, including selection of the appropriate dry ice Shipment Service as appropriate.
Run the standard rating and select the appropriate class of service from the carrier of your choice.
Process a multi-package shipment with a carrier (e.g. FedEx) using the same process described so far.
Each package will be processed with the same dry ice settings.Enter the appropriate address and other shipment details, including multiple packages as shown here. Select the appropriate Shipment Service for dry ice.
After processing the shipment, review the labels and note the "Ice" indicator is present on both labels for this multi-package shipment.
Not all service classes will have an Ice flag indicator on the label.