By Cargo Taxi Deliveries · Published October 12, 2026
Lithium batteries ship under three distinct cases: batteries alone (UN3480 lithium-ion, UN3090 lithium-metal), batteries packed with equipment (UN3481, UN3091), and batteries contained in equipment (also UN3481, UN3091). Each carries different marking and paperwork requirements, and choosing the wrong one is the most common cause of a refused battery load.
The three cases, and why they are confused
Almost every lithium battery compliance failure comes from the same place: the three shipping cases look similar to somebody preparing a shipment and are regulated differently. A box of cells, a box containing a drill and its battery, and a box containing a drill with the battery already in it are three different shipments in the eyes of the regulation, with different UN numbers, different marks and different paperwork.
The distinction is not arbitrary. A loose cell can short against its neighbours and is the highest risk. A cell packed alongside equipment is protected by its packaging but is still a free item in the box. A cell installed in equipment is physically constrained and protected by the device itself, and is treated most leniently.
Get this wrong and the usual outcome is a refusal at a dock or an air terminal, which is inconvenient. The less usual outcome is a thermal event in a trailer, which is not.
| Case | Lithium-ion | Lithium-metal | Typical example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battery alone | UN3480 | UN3090 | A carton of replacement cells |
| Packed with equipment | UN3481 | UN3091 | A tool and its spare battery in one box |
| Contained in equipment | UN3481 | UN3091 | A laptop with its battery installed |
State of charge, watt-hours and why they are asked
Two numbers decide a great deal about how a lithium shipment is handled. The first is the watt-hour rating for lithium-ion cells and batteries, or the lithium content in grams for lithium-metal. These set which thresholds and exceptions apply, and they are printed on the cell or available from the manufacturer — a shipper who does not know them cannot classify the shipment.
The second is state of charge. Lithium-ion cells and batteries shipped on their own are generally limited to 30% of rated capacity, because a cell at full charge carries far more energy to release if it fails. This catches people out constantly: a pallet of fully charged cells is not the same shipment as the same pallet at 30%, and "we just shipped them as they came off the line" is the explanation behind a great many refusals.
When a carrier's dispatcher asks for watt-hours, chemistry, state of charge and the shipping case, that is not bureaucracy. Those four answers determine the UN number, the marks, the paperwork and whether the load can be taken at all.
Damaged, defective and recalled cells
This is the category that causes real harm and it deserves to be stated bluntly: a damaged, defective or recalled lithium cell is not an ordinary lithium shipment with a note attached. It ships under its own, considerably stricter provisions, requires packaging designed to contain a thermal runaway, and is forbidden from air transport entirely.
The commercial pressure to under-declare here is obvious — a warranty return of a swollen pack is an inconvenience the sender wants to be cheap. Declaring it honestly is the difference between a managed shipment and a fire in somebody's trailer. A carrier will ask about condition on every battery booking for exactly this reason, and a shipper who answers vaguely should expect the load to be declined.
Recalled batteries are their own case again: a manufacturer recall usually comes with specific transport instructions, and those instructions override general practice. Read them before packing rather than after.
Who is actually responsible
The shipper. Classification, packaging, marking, labelling and the accuracy of the shipping paper are the shipper's legal responsibility, not the carrier's, and that does not change because the carrier is experienced or because the shipment has moved this way before without incident.
What a good carrier does is refuse to collude in a bad declaration. Dispatch will ask the four questions, will say when the answers do not add up, and will decline rather than take a load it believes is misclassified. That is a service, not an obstruction — the alternative is a shipment that is refused downstream at best, and at worst becomes an incident with the shipper's name on the paperwork.