Working as a dangerous goods safety adviser: requirements, exam and jobs

What does a safety adviser do?

Under the Swedish Act on the Transport of Dangerous Goods, anyone whose business transports dangerous goods must have one or more safety advisers. The same applies to anyone who hands dangerous goods over to someone else for transport, and the Swedish Civil Defence and Resilience Agency (MCF, formerly MSB) counts loading and unloading as well. Under management’s responsibility, the adviser works to prevent damage and injury in connection with the transports.

Day to day, this means making sure the rules are followed, drawing up routines and instructions, reporting accidents and incidents and writing an annual report to management. MCF stresses that the adviser needs to know the business well to do this.

The requirement applies to all modes of transport: road, rail, sea and air. It also applies to public authorities. The role can be held by the head of the business, by an employee or by an independent consultant.

Which employers need one?

The requirement applies to every business that handles dangerous goods in the transport chain, unless one of the exemptions in MCF’s regulations applies. In the adverts on Platsbanken, Arbetsförmedlingen’s job board, over the past year, the employers included:

• The Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten), which has advertised for safety advisers at several units, including Amf 4/Göteborgs garnison in Gothenburg.
• Region Skåne, whose transport unit carries goods, laundry and post to the region’s hospitals.
• Waste and recycling companies.
• Industrial companies in engineering, energy and chemicals.
• Consultancies that act as external safety advisers for other companies. One of them wrote in its advert that it has around 40 such clients.

The profession is small. In January 2021 there were 577 approved safety advisers in the register, and the 429 who were active had 3,634 businesses between them, according to an evaluation Tyréns carried out for Trafikverket. That is on average more than eight businesses per adviser, so many have several assignments at the same time.

What the jobs look like in the adverts

We went through adverts on Platsbanken from October 2025 to October 2026 that mentioned both safety adviser (säkerhetsrådgivare) and dangerous goods (farligt gods).

Safety adviser as a position of its own

Most of the adverts with safety adviser in the title came from the Swedish Armed Forces. In July 2026, Region Skåne advertised for a safety adviser where dangerous goods made up about 60 per cent of the position and administrative support to the unit managers the rest.

Part of another role

The assignment is often part of a larger job. Region Skåne has advertised for a unit manager who is also the region’s safety adviser for road transport, and a waste company in Helsingborg advertised for a department manager who would be trained as a safety adviser. In adverts for chemists and for environmental and safety specialists, the certificate was listed as a merit.

Close to the safety adviser

Industrial companies also hire environmental and safety coordinators, often with titles such as EHS or SHEQ, who are the contact person for an external safety adviser. There you learn the rules in practice, and it can be a way in before you take the exam yourself.

The requirements that come up again and again are a valid certificate from MCF, usually for road, or equivalent knowledge, and experience of dangerous goods. Older adverts say MSB instead of MCF. Some employers provide the training themselves: the Swedish Armed Forces has advertised for officers who want to become safety advisers, and the waste company in Helsingborg would train its new manager.

How to find the jobs

1. Search for dangerous goods. On Platsbanken, the word säkerhetsrådgivare is also used for alarm sales, protective security and security work at embassies, so a search on the title alone mostly returns other jobs. Combine "farligt gods" with "ADR", "EHS" or "miljösamordnare" instead.
2. Use MCF’s register as a list of employers. In the safety adviser register (Säkerhetsrådgivarregistret) you can look up businesses in a town, municipality or county that have appointed a safety adviser. They handle dangerous goods, so they can be worth an open application, especially if you have worked in transport, warehousing or with chemicals.
3. Make the certificate clear in your CV. State which modes of transport it covers and how long it is valid. The certificate only covers the modes of transport you have passed.

The exam at MCF

To work as a safety adviser, you must have passed MCF’s exam. There are no formal training requirements to sit it.

The exam takes 8 hours, and a question only scores if every answer option is marked correctly. You may bring the regulations in printed form.

The fee is SEK 2,100 for the general part, the case study and one mode of transport, and each additional mode costs another fee. The result arrives by letter within two weeks. The certificate is valid for five years and is renewed with a renewal exam, which you can take at the earliest twelve months before it expires.

When is the next exam?

MCF holds the exam a few times a year at its office at Packhusallén 2 in Karlstad. These are the dates up to June 2027:

You register in MCF’s e-service Säkerhetsrådgivarregistret, under Planerade examinationstillfällen (planned exam dates), and receive a letter as confirmation. On the exam day, bring valid photo ID and an extract from the population register (personbevis) showing your citizenship and place of birth. The dates can change, so check them on MCF’s registration page before you plan.

During 2026 the exam becomes digital. You then bring your own computer running Windows or macOS and install a special browser for the exam beforehand. You need administrator rights on the computer for the installation, and MCF wants you to take a demo exam first. The content, requirements and marking stay the same, and over time the exam is to be offered in more places than Karlstad. There is more on the digital exam in an overview of the exam dates and the digital exam (in Swedish).

Preparing for the exam

The exam requires knowledge of the risks in transporting dangerous goods, of the laws and regulations for the modes of transport you take and of the safety adviser’s own tasks. If you have worked with dangerous goods, you will recognise some of it from ADR or 1.3 training.

MCF recommends a course that covers the whole subject area, but does not require one. There are classroom courses lasting a few days and distance courses, for example an online course for safety advisers (in Swedish) that trains you in the format of the exam, with the general part, road and rail. Before you choose a course, compare which modes of transport it covers, whether MCF’s exam fee is included and how long you have access to the material.

How to get started, step by step

1. 1

   Read the adverts

   Search Platsbanken for farligt gods and see which requirements come up where you live.

2. 2

   Choose a mode of transport

   Road is the most common in the adverts. Each additional mode is a separate part with its own fee.

3. 3

   Study and register

   You register in MCF’s e-service Säkerhetsrådgivarregistret, about two weeks before the exam date at the latest. The dates are under When is the next exam?

4. 4

   Apply for jobs

   Platsbanken, the register for open applications and a CV where the certificate is visible.

If you take part in Prepare and Match

We do not train safety advisers. But in Prepare and Match (Rusta och matcha), your coach can help you find the adverts, pick out employers in Gothenburg from MCF’s register and write a CV that shows your experience of transport, warehousing or chemicals. Thinking about studying for the exam? Talk to Arbetsförmedlingen first, so that you know how it affects your plan and your compensation.

Would you rather drive yourself? Read about how to become a truck or bus driver.

Written by Ajdin KurbegovicCo-founder, operations manager and job coach at Swefleet

We are a provider of Prepare and Match on behalf of Arbetsförmedlingen in Gothenburg. The text is based on the sources below and was updated on 14 October 2026. Rules can change, so always check your own case with Arbetsförmedlingen or Försäkringskassan.