Own Account Driver:
You talk about most loads but ‘most loads’ are by far and away packaged consumer goods wrapped on chep or euro pallets. Unless precariously double stacked there is little or no evidence of a significant problem with them coming through curtains and certainly no evidence of pedestrians and other road users being harmed by such.
I am sorry but you seem miss the point. You are quite right that most do not come through curtains or harm other road users (the odd one does), but that isn’t the full picture. What about the incidents that happen at delivery or collection points. That item that falls and catches the fork lift driver or the truck driver, or that stock that gets damaged when it fell over, or that damage to the truck/trailer? What about the daily roll overs we hear on the news? Most are caused by load shift which is probably caused by crap driving. But if the load was secured to known standards it wouldn’t shift.
I used to be involved in running general haulage with quite a large fleet. Weekly meetings saw us discussing yet another damage claim from a customer or more damage to trailers or worse - an injured employee.
I had an old chap come for his CPC a few years back. Nice old bloke still driving his own truck. He’s dead now - hit by a Corsa driven by a boy racer on a country road. Police think he had got out to try to secure his load after it leaned precariously and got hit by the car. There was no other reason he had stopped where he had with his hazards on. The load was leaning badly and one strap was undone as though he had been adjusting it.
The consequences of load shift are diverse - not just falling out of the curtains.
I will agree that some lightweight loads in standard curtainsiders will more than likely be fine - but we are talking lightweight, well stacked and wrapped positive fit with no gaps between loads. Anything else will shift - it’s just physics at work. When a force acts on a load due to a direction change or speed change it will either tip or slide. Friction stops sliding but we generally don’t have enough of that and badly stacked/wrapped pallets fall over.
One of my customers runs box van fridges - 18t trucks. They carry palletised stock such as bottles of pop/water. The drivers have been complaining about the state of pallets and lack of equipment such as load lock bars for months. We have held training sessions, tool box talks and discussions with managers etc but nothing changed. They have now had an incident of a 7ft tall pallet falling out as the back was opened - driver is not well at all. It was so obvious it was going to happen and so easily avoided. Who are they blaming■■? The driver saying he shouldn’t have taken the load and should have gone back in the warehouse to get it sorted. Driver says he’s sick of getting fobbed off when he does. However - broken bones are a reportable incident under RIDDOR and they have had a visit from the Health & Safety brigade. They have risk assessments identifying the need for load lock bars, straps, a max pallet height etc etc which has all been ignored. They are now being prosecuted. I know I am waffling on and on but I see all this as avoidable if everyone just did their job properly.
As I have said the consequences of load shift are very varied but all have an impact.
HOWEVER - I take on board your point that the incidents from small to large are a small percentage of the loads carried on the roads each day … I get that but unfortunately I live in the real world where I read a report about a driver with a life changing injury or even dead and it saddens me because it was avoidable. I read of companies going bust I ponder on how much of their profits were lost due to damage claims etc.
I just think there is much room for improvement. I see a lot of loads on flats and low loaders where I can just about guarantee that a sudden stop or swerve or both will see the load shift. It just hasn’t happened yet. The driver gets complacent and one day it’s going to bit him.
I don’t often agree with Carryfast but he is exactly right. it is the operators and legislation that needs changing. The rest of Europe recognises EN12642 a basic standard for body construction on goods vehicles - the UK doesn’t. This standard stipulates basic requirements for lashing points - the UK doesn’t. A vast majority of operators simply do not have a clue what they are talking about when it comes to buying/specifying trailers or securing a load.
Unfortunately I cannot do anything about legislation or operators. We have had the DCPC forced on us and I have decided to do what I can with that. If some drivers change what they do with regard to load safety because of this then it has achieved something - or alternatively they can choose to carry on as they are. Carryfast is right - it’s the wrong way to do it.
DVSA are misguided. Fine - stick to the enforcement rules they have published but investigate each one and when it is proven that the driver had no choice, didn’t have the equipment, was told to shut up and crack on etc etc then go for the management - not the driver. If it is proven the driver had the equipment, knowledge etc and chose not to bother - deal with the driver but based on the severity i.e No accident £100. Road closure - prosecution. DVSA appear to be trying to get at operators via drivers.
then walk away and carry on in your real world ways or change your ways.
