Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 110.22; Flight Crew Total 2091.92; Flight Crew Type 2091.92
Confusion; Communication Breakdown; Time Pressure
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Hazardous Material Violation; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Returned To Gate; General Maintenance Action; General Work Refused
Procedure; Human Factors; Company Policy
While conducting the cockpit setup; we received an ACARS message stating; 'No Dangerous Goods Planned.' On taxi out; we sent Load Planning a Late Weights message. The response from company was; 'Hazmat Needs To Be Secured. Ramp Does Not Have Enough Bags.' We were both confused by this message as we were not aware that any Hazmat was loaded. After about 20 minutes; Ops instructed us to return to the gate to have the Hazmat secured. I asked if Ops had been advised what the Hazmat was. They could not provide that information. I told Ops that I was refusing the Hazmat and upon gate return; I wanted it removed. I contacted the Asst. Manager of Ramp Operations; [name]; by phone and advised of the safety implications of what had happened and of my refusal of the Hazmat shipment. Two large red bags and two large boxes were removed from the forward pit and we departed.My main safety concerns are that we were out of the blocks for almost an hour with no idea that we had Hazmat aboard; Ops couldn't tell us what the Hazmat was and Hazmat was not properly secured by the ramp crew. If we had had a cargo fire or smoke or fumes; I had no information to provide to the [ARFF] crews.I refused the Hazmat for two reasons. 1) I had no information about the shipment and 2) I didn't want to subject the passengers to any additional delays for this issue.
Air Carrier Captain reported a ground gate return to unload Hazmat cargo due to no Hazmat documentation provided to flight crew.