trucken:
Used to deliver 4metre long fibre cement roofing sheets, don’t quite know how I could have got them in through the back door.
Pretty sure…
I wouldn’t be arriving on site with a box to collect (what I assume is) a flat load. Any more than I’d show up at Britvics with a flat.
My point is, a box is much less likely to spill cargo than a curtain. This is why we now have all this XL ratings malarkey which everyone knows is little more than box ticking and a method of blaming (you’ve already guessed it right?) the driver. Curtains are a shortcut to maximise profits at the expense of road safety and their only benefit is operational flexibility.
yourhavingalarf:
Curtains should be banned and everything shipped in boxes and before you all say it can’t be done, I don’t see the USA using curtains.
Well you need better glasses then. Palletized goods are certainly mostly shipped in boxes, anything bigger goes on flats, which, as of lately, have begun sporting this weird type of superstructure, a frame with usually a fiberglass roof and tarpaulin on the sides.
Personally I always preferred flats and curtainsiders and even tilts to a box of some sort - often a bit of a challenge and you got some physical activity in, when for example securing a load of plasterboard or paper rolls with both sides and the roof open, throwing on 20+ straps. Any old monkey can drive, not many can make it through Germany with a load of groupage in a tilt without an eye-watering fine from the BAG.
yourhavingalarf:
trucken:
Used to deliver 4metre long fibre cement roofing sheets, don’t quite know how I could have got them in through the back door.
Pretty sure…
I wouldn’t be arriving on site with a box to collect (what I assume is) a flat load. Any more than I’d show up at Britvics with a flat.
My point is, a box is much less likely to spill cargo than a curtain. This is why we now have all this XL ratings malarkey which everyone knows is little more than box ticking and a method of blaming (you’ve already guessed it right?) the driver. Curtains are a shortcut to maximise profits at the expense of road safety and their only benefit is operational flexibility.
Well…yes…
A tautliner can safely (with a half way decent driver) safely carry plts and longer stuff and generally be more versatile and, again yes, earn more. That isn’t a sin.
And with the long stuff, I would rather have a taut rather than have a set of sheets. Been there/done that, but would rather not do it again, thanks.
Better a taut running loaded with a variety of goods rather than flats and boxes criss-crossing empty.
There does seem a to be a problem with poorly packaged goods and lack of suitable securing equipment. That isn’t the fault of the trailer.