Do i need straps?

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
21

WildGoose:
I’m hating curtainsiders to be honest. They hide too much, and give a false sense of security. An attitude of “it’ll be ok” develops in everyone to the point you get a raised eyebrow or a dismissive comment when you suggest straps. There is quite a bit of peer pressure if you find yourself in the wrong place.

I’ve driven 7.5 tonne flatbeds for a while, and learned the hard way at times that when you make a pigs ear of securing the load, it falls off onto the road. You soon work out how to hold stuff on there.

I’ve been carrying all sorts in the curtains lately, and far too much of it isn’t strapped as standard. It isn’t just me, I used to work at a horse feed supplier, and ton pallets of paper feed bags that were delivered in to us were wrapped in cling firm but loaded unstrapped, all the time, not even internals.

Quite often though, it is the suppliers fault, as a crushable load stacked on pallets cannot be secured with ratchets, as it just cuts into the load and doesn’t compress or hold anything. All you can do in this instance is use internals and hope for the best basically.

I’ve carried flat pack furniture stacked on pallets, with no wrap round it, and been told “no need to strap it drive, it won’t go anywhere”. Sure enough it did, and I had bulging curtains after the first few corners, and the people at the delivery point were less than happy as well. It’s embarressing turning up with a load that looks like its been thrown on.

Also, lots of curtainsiders are expected to load through the back doors via bays, loading or unloading there is nothing put into the plan about pulling off the bay then parking up with enough room either side to open both curtains and throw straps across. There is never any space and never any time.

We have a lot of drivers go through our trucks, its just the nature of the work, lots of agency drivers come through etc. Straps are a precious commodity, it isn’t unusual to come in at 0345 and find no straps onboard. You can’t ring anyone for help at this time of the morning but are still planned to be on the road within 15 minutes. So i’ve purchased my own set of straps to cover this eventuality, it means I don’t have to fret about the “what if” possibilities the night before.

I have also ‘acquired’ a set of 30 timber bearers which will live in the back of my car until needed, for a similar reason - there are never any when you need them. Plenty of signs up at the big timber docks that they won’t load you without your own bearers.

I don’t trust internal straps to do anything, if the weight of me swinging off them can flex the roof inwards, what will happen to the trailer if 2-3 tons suddenly pulls sideways on them. Waste of time in my opinion, a tick in the box for elf and safety but nothing more.

If it isn’t secured with straps to the chassis equal to or greater than the weight of the load, then drive it like you are delivering a load of eggs and glass to a house made of straw built on an ice rink.

I think you have hit the nail on the head, it is not “cool” to strap loads. I strap all but the lightest of loads, ie those that will get damaged by using straps on them.

The other problem lies with the items not being properly wrapped/packaged by the company despatching the goods.

22

waddy640:

WildGoose:
I’m hating curtainsiders to be honest. They hide too much, and give a false sense of security. An attitude of “it’ll be ok” develops in everyone to the point you get a raised eyebrow or a dismissive comment when you suggest straps. There is quite a bit of peer pressure if you find yourself in the wrong place.

I’ve driven 7.5 tonne flatbeds for a while, and learned the hard way at times that when you make a pigs ear of securing the load, it falls off onto the road. You soon work out how to hold stuff on there.

I’ve been carrying all sorts in the curtains lately, and far too much of it isn’t strapped as standard. It isn’t just me, I used to work at a horse feed supplier, and ton pallets of paper feed bags that were delivered in to us were wrapped in cling firm but loaded unstrapped, all the time, not even internals.

Quite often though, it is the suppliers fault, as a crushable load stacked on pallets cannot be secured with ratchets, as it just cuts into the load and doesn’t compress or hold anything. All you can do in this instance is use internals and hope for the best basically.

I’ve carried flat pack furniture stacked on pallets, with no wrap round it, and been told “no need to strap it drive, it won’t go anywhere”. Sure enough it did, and I had bulging curtains after the first few corners, and the people at the delivery point were less than happy as well. It’s embarressing turning up with a load that looks like its been thrown on.

Also, lots of curtainsiders are expected to load through the back doors via bays, loading or unloading there is nothing put into the plan about pulling off the bay then parking up with enough room either side to open both curtains and throw straps across. There is never any space and never any time.

We have a lot of drivers go through our trucks, its just the nature of the work, lots of agency drivers come through etc. Straps are a precious commodity, it isn’t unusual to come in at 0345 and find no straps onboard. You can’t ring anyone for help at this time of the morning but are still planned to be on the road within 15 minutes. So i’ve purchased my own set of straps to cover this eventuality, it means I don’t have to fret about the “what if” possibilities the night before.

I have also ‘acquired’ a set of 30 timber bearers which will live in the back of my car until needed, for a similar reason - there are never any when you need them. Plenty of signs up at the big timber docks that they won’t load you without your own bearers.

I don’t trust internal straps to do anything, if the weight of me swinging off them can flex the roof inwards, what will happen to the trailer if 2-3 tons suddenly pulls sideways on them. Waste of time in my opinion, a tick in the box for elf and safety but nothing more.

If it isn’t secured with straps to the chassis equal to or greater than the weight of the load, then drive it like you are delivering a load of eggs and glass to a house made of straw built on an ice rink.

I think you have hit the nail on the head, it is not “cool” to strap loads. I strap all but the lightest of loads, ie those that will get damaged by using straps on them.

The other problem lies with the items not being properly wrapped/packaged by the company despatching the goods.

Good posts, both of them. Sums it up nicely to my mind.

23

As I said on another thread recently…

Load bearing curtains might be just that, but would you leave a steel coil unstrapped? Depending which way on its loaded, then it might appear through the headboard and over the cab, or rolling affecting the stability of the vehicle on the road.

As for crisps being secured, yeah a full load of palleted boxed crisps is pretty light and wont go far probably, but I know many a company who carry them and strap them. I guess between crisps and steel theres a happy medium but that happy medium would be hard to judge, so if its strapped, then everyone is happy and you don’t have to worry.

I did see an artic curtainsider full to the roof one day with timber, unstrapped. The driver said he knew he should have strapped it, and when he did, it only took five minutes.

24

Loaded a box last year with coat hangers… Not a heavy item…

Went round a roundabout, noticed my trailer wheels weren’t touching the ground… The load had shifted and nearly took me over. And this was coat hangers…

Food for thought.

25

waynedl:
Loaded a box last year with coat hangers… Not a heavy item…

Went round a roundabout, noticed my trailer wheels weren’t touching the ground… The load had shifted and nearly took me over. And this was coat hangers…

Food for thought.

I bet you loaded your boxers at that point too!

26

zippy!:

waynedl:
Loaded a box last year with coat hangers… Not a heavy item…

Went round a roundabout, noticed my trailer wheels weren’t touching the ground… The load had shifted and nearly took me over. And this was coat hangers…

Food for thought.

I bet you loaded your boxers at that point too!

And unloaded my lunch…

1st and only time I’ve had anything like that happen, and, yep, I ■■■■ myself. Especially as I didn’t even feel it going, just noticed the gap under the wheels in my mirror.

27

Yep, first time I drove with a loaded tank container on I quickly realised about load shift on roundabouts and learned about driving slowly!

28

In my experience nets are secure enough on their own to hold bricks and blocks, on two ocassions I’ve had packs with weak bands that have split and the nets have kept the load on the wagon and not spilt all over the road, having said that some places I go to now require you to strap the load aswell.

Celcon and Thermalite also provide wood spacers to go in the gap between the blocks, keeps them secure and stops the load shifting as you drive along.

29

elcamino:
‘…do I … need to use straps … to secure pallets?..’

I picked up an unsecured pallet in a sealed reefer trailer compartment yesterday and told the Transport shift manager that I’d be putting a ‘near miss’ report in for it at the end of shift debrief.

However, I took his word that he’d rattle the loader’s ear after I’d be gone. I prefer my original idea rather than ‘trusting a manager’, but he’s had the benefit of my doubt this time …and for his sake I hope he doesn’t abuse it

I’m not into this ‘out-of-sight, out-of-mind’ lark just because it’s in a reefer for my licence sake: What if I roll it?

30

waynedl:
Loaded a box last year with coat hangers… Not a heavy item…

Went round a roundabout, noticed my trailer wheels weren’t touching the ground… The load had shifted and nearly took me over. And this was coat hangers…

Food for thought.

Go slower round roundabouts, it’s quicker than rolling over.

31

SO IS THIS SAFE ■■?


Remembering that hooks aint load tested so how about the edge of the trailer ■■?
and thats 23t (not all on 1 strap of course )
I still say weve used this method for years and its as safe as it can ever be

32

nick2008:
SO IS THIS SAFE ■■?


Remembering that hooks aint load tested so how about the edge of the trailer ■■?
and thats 23t (not all on 1 strap of course )
I still say weve used this method for years and its as safe as it can ever be

“SO IS THIS SAFE?”

Officially, no.

The whole point of securing a load is so that it doesn’t come “apart” from the trailer if you roll it or otherwise lose control. I assume that those 2 blocks on the trailer are concrete and from your comments I also assume they are 11.5 tonne each. 2x 1 tonne rated ratchet straps ain’t gonna hold 11.5 tonne if you roll it, neither is 3x 1 tonne straps on the rear block.

33

Grayham:
In my experience nets are secure enough on their own to hold bricks and blocks

So you’re confident that your net will hold all your bricks and blocks on if you roll it then? :laughing:

34

I thought the straps were 5 tonne?

35

Slightly off topic
Our trucks are pre loaded by night shift, and although there is no danger of the load spilling out onto the road (box vans), we are constantly complaining about the muppets not wrapping, banding, strapping or using loadlock poles, especially to stop load (radiators & boilers) moving forwards. I’ve even gone through a phase of unloading and reloading making deliveries late and hoping customers complain, nothing gets through to the muppets. My latest tactic is to change my work ethic, it goes out as is, I drive normally and if owt gets broke/damaged, I haven’t been trained to use restraints (one of our loaders excuses). But I know already that this won’t work, once had a £4k boiler fall over and nowt was said. It seems that BSS have more money than sense, lets hope things change when Travis Perkins take over.

36

Big Brummie Macca:
I thought the straps were 5 tonne?

straps come in various load ratings

37

Rob K:
“SO IS THIS SAFE?”

Officially, no.

The whole point of securing a load is so that it doesn’t come “apart” from the trailer if you roll it or otherwise lose control. I assume that those 2 blocks on the trailer are concrete and from your comments I also assume they are 11.5 tonne each. 2x 1 tonne rated ratchet straps ain’t gonna hold 11.5 tonne if you roll it, neither is 3x 1 tonne straps on the rear block.

Well in years gone by I was told that the strap could be ID’d for its loading by the number of black dotted lines in it ie 5 lines 5 ton . the ratchet is stamped at 6.500kgs as for the amount of concreate no there are 4 blocks in the 1st part of the load each about 2.5 t they are placed inside each other.
There is no other way to secure the load and since I’ve taken loads like this to the land of men in skirts and they havent moved an inch and yes i check all restraints at regular times. I would love VOSA to indicate how we The Professional driver are to secure the loads :wink:

38

scotstrucker:

Big Brummie Macca:
I thought the straps were 5 tonne?

straps come in various load ratings

I always thought the bigger ones like in the picture are rated at 5 tonne I know smaller ones are less as I used to use them in my van.

39

elcamino:
hello,any one pls tell if im pulling a curtain sider with 24 palletts @ pallett size of around 2ft in height all clingfilmed up, do i still need to use straps as well to secure palletts??.. hearing allsorts saying VOSA will prosecute for not securing your load, even if the palletts weigh 100kg each…

The official line is that all loads should be secured, whether it’s 60 odd pallets on a triple-decker or a couple of boxes in the back of your car. The reality is that the vast majority of people don’t bother and take their chances but you’re leaving yourself wide open for a fine if VOSA stop you.

As a general rule I’d only secure stuff in a rag-sider if I thought it was likely to move under normal driving. For me that equated to :

Straps from the roof rail down the side of the product or separate straps over the top of the product + last 2 roof mounted straps criss-crossed behind the rear most pallets to stop them falling backwards when pulling away :

  • the vast majority of printed material
  • chipboard/plywood
  • anything that had been restacked where the person had used a roll of shrink-wrap by hand as they never use the same amount that a proper machine would do

For tall pallets of pop etc I wouldn’t bother strapping them in sideways but would always criss-cross them at the rear.
For tall stacks of fresh meat in trays or trays of fresh fruit in a fridge, I’d always bar them top and bottom to stop them falling backwards. Obviously they can’t go sideways in a fridge.

For just about everything else, I never bother with securing as I don’t feel that it needs to be done as I don’t drive like a [zb].

It’s just common sense really.

40

nick2008:

Rob K:
“SO IS THIS SAFE?”

Officially, no.

The whole point of securing a load is so that it doesn’t come “apart” from the trailer if you roll it or otherwise lose control. I assume that those 2 blocks on the trailer are concrete and from your comments I also assume they are 11.5 tonne each. 2x 1 tonne rated ratchet straps ain’t gonna hold 11.5 tonne if you roll it, neither is 3x 1 tonne straps on the rear block.

Well in years gone by I was told that the strap could be ID’d for its loading by the number of black dotted lines in it ie 5 lines 5 ton . the ratchet is stamped at 6.500kgs as for the amount of concreate no there are 4 blocks in the 1st part of the load each about 2.5 t they are placed inside each other.
There is no other way to secure the load and since I’ve taken loads like this to the land of men in skirts and they havent moved an inch and yes i check all restraints at regular times. I would love VOSA to indicate how we The Professional driver are to secure the loads :wink:

I don’t disagree with you and I’d probably secure it the same as you have, but I’d prefer 4 on each of the 2 sections where you are using 3 and 2 respectively. Would you put money on those 2 straps holding those blocks in place if you rolled it? :wink: I bet you wouldn’t… :stuck_out_tongue: