There’s a will to do the job properly in Germany because there is consignor liability. If a company lets an insecure load out of its gates, it can be prosecuted.
Consequentially, most companies in Germany who send freight by road employ trained people to load vehicles. They even photograph the load to prove it was compliant, and provide instructions about how it was restrained and a safe method of unloading which travel with the trailer to its destination.
The German economy has not been harmed as a result. In fact the extra time taken is probably more than made up for by less loss and damage to good in transit.
High time we had the same here.
(I once saw someone pull the curtains back on a trailer with new boxed washing machines in it. One of the machines fell out and hit the concrete. A write-off. Ignoring the potential danger for a moment, how many £100s of damage, which could have been prevented with a few straps worth a fraction of the damage done?)
GasGas:
There’s a will to do the job properly in Germany because there is consignor liability. If a company lets an insecure load out of its gates, it can be prosecuted.
Consequentially, most companies in Germany who send freight by road employ trained people to load vehicles. They even photograph the load to prove it was compliant, and provide instructions about how it was restrained and a safe method of unloading which travel with the trailer to its destination.
The German economy has not been harmed as a result. In fact the extra time taken is probably more than made up for by less loss and damage to good in transit.
High time we had the same here.
(I once saw someone pull the curtains back on a trailer with new boxed washing machines in it. One of the machines fell out and hit the concrete. A write-off. Ignoring the potential danger for a moment, how many £100s of damage, which could have been prevented with a few straps worth a fraction of the damage done?)
That is the crux of the matter, consignor liability, however in the UK we are so far behind the Continent in most things transport related, from the warehouse, the cleanliness and the driver training, how many German or Dutch hauliers are expecting the drivers to pay for their code 95?
And a truck driver in Germany really is regarded as a professional. For example they are ranked along with medical doctors, company directors, clergy etc as being of ‘good standing’ and able to sign passport applications.
I was once asked to fill in a survey by the Department for Transport. One of the things it tried to do was establish your socio-economic class. ‘Lorry drivers’ were given as an example of ‘semiskilled/unqualified’! I wrote and complained, but there was never a reply.
BTW the thing that worried me most about the washing machine incident was that it wasn’t seen as unusual or dangerous, but it was seen as quite funny. The only ‘regret’ expressed was that because the thing exploded when it hit the tarmac, no one could sell it in the pub that evening.
Brewery drays used to have post and chains or a cargo net to fasten the load on. and then they started using these tapered brewliner trailers. My father had his draught beer delivered in tankers and pumped into 36 gallon stone jars. In Leeds & Hull they still delivered beer by Horse and Cart until fairly recently.
