Founder Story — Darnell Hawe
A practitioner’s approach to dangerous goods.
Darnell Hawe founded Sentinel Hazmat after 18+ years working dangerous goods from every angle: UPS service provider, Dangerous Good Specialist/anyalist, and Global Dangerous Goods Manager. He has built DG programs for serveral industries including Aerospace, Chemical, Lithium Batteries, and 3PL providers. He has trained 1000+ operators across 30 countries, and responded to incidents ranging from mis-declared lithium cells in air cargo to isotank spills in ocean freight.
The pattern he kept seeing: companies treating DG compliance as a document problem when it is, at its core, a decision problem. The declaration is the last artifact in a long chain of people making calls about classification, packaging, segregation, and training. When any one of those decisions is wrong, the paperwork is a lie — and the risk shows up downstream, in a warehouse fire, a grounded aircraft, or a regulator’s subpoena.
Sentinel Hazmat exists to make those decisions defensible, traceable, and correct.
Mission
To make the global movement of dangerous goods safer, faster, and fully defensible — one audit, one trained operator, and one correctly classified shipment at a time.
Credentials
CERTIFICATIONS & AUTHORITIES
IATA DGR, Trainer, Lithium Batteries | IMDG Code | DOT 49 CFR & Hazwoper | DGAC
Why Sentinel Exists
DG incidents are rarely caused by a single failure. They are caused by unclear ownership, outdated training, and programs that were built for the company three reorgs ago. By the time a fine or a fire arrives, the cost is already five to fifty times what a proper program would have cost.
Sentinel Hazmat was built for the operators, safety leads, and logistics directors who already know this — and need an advisor who can move at the pace of their business without cutting regulatory corners.
Who We Serve
1.
Small shippers and e-commerce sellers
You ship lithium batteries, cosmetics, aerosols, or cleaning products and you just learned the hard way that “small” does not exempt you from 49 CFR or IATA DGR. We build the minimum viable compliant program — training, packaging, paperwork — and get you out of the penalty zone fast.
2.
Mid-market manufacturers
You have a DG program, but it was written by someone who left two years ago. We audit it, modernize it, and train your team on what actually applies in 2026.
3.
Enterprise chemical, pharma, oil & gas
You have compliance staff, but you need outside expertise for new routes, new products, regulatory change management, or incident investigation. We plug into your existing program as a senior advisor — not a replacement.
4.
3PLs and freight forwarders
You move other people’s DG, and you carry the liability when a shipper misdeclares. We build acceptance-check protocols, train your frontline, and stand up defensible documentation for every lane you run.
Not sure which fits?
Book a DG Risk Assessment →