all this crap about strapping loads is a stealth tax as far as I’m concerned. Again the driver will be hit in the pocket and fined. we strap pallets with 6 boxes on them!!! Has the world gone mad. tax, tax tax.
yep no need to worry about load restraint 
yeah I see your point, but that isn’t crisps and loo rolls and pallets a foot high is it? nice pics though.
A single chep pallet flying through the air is plenty enough to kill someone. If you don’t do it for your benefit do it for the benefit for others 
if someone dosn’t secure a load, then they shouldn’t be on the road.
i’ve loaded at some places that won’t allow you to secure the load on their premises due to health and safety. they change their tune when i tell them to unload it.
i don’t think drivers should be the ones to get a fine though. the buyer, the seller, and the haulier should all be held responsible.
You’re right it is bs, most stuff doesn’t need strapping. It’s the drivers responsibility to secure the load, so I just do what suits me and if I think I can get it there without it falling over then I don’t strap it.
Here’s one for you then-
Last week i did a job for a company out of Retford, i was given my motor and told which trailer to pick up. I hooked up and pulled the trailer out, parked up at one side of the yard and started to pull the curtains back to check the load. Nothing was strapped down, i had about 18 pallets on of household stuff bound for Goole and Chesterfield tesco RDC respectivley.
I have always been taught to strap loads down, so up i got and started to sort the straps out, after 15 mins swearing and cursing and clambering over the load ( Surley this must raise a healt and saftey issue of working at height) , another driver pulled up and asked what i was doing. I explained that nothing was strapped and i was sorting it out, his reply was “Dont bother strapping everything, just put a couple across the back and you will be fine”. At this point i was now sweating like a fat kid with a salad, the transport manger had come out and started ranting and raving wanting to why i had not yet left the yard after being in for almost 40 minutes.The other driver explained what i had been doing, the TM just grunted and bounded off across the yard.So,against my better judgment i put 2 across the back and got on with the days jobs.
Did i do the right thing on the advice of a more experienced driver ? Or should i have spent more time strapping everything down ■■
When trailers are loaded over night, why are warehouse Ops not made to strap them with the driver checking them in the morning ?
DADDY LONGLEGS:
all this crap about strapping loads is a stealth tax as far as I’m concerned. Again the driver will be hit in the pocket and fined. we strap pallets with 6 boxes on them!!! Has the world gone mad. tax, tax tax.
No i dont agree with you at all, its so important to strap your load. I think its crazy that uk trailers dont have boards in though and instead insist on them silly internal straps. The companies that we load out of are partly to blame though, they need to start wrapping pallets with corner protectors, they shouldnt just be aloud to throw ■■■■ on a pallet with one wind of wrap round and think thats enough!
Saaamon:
DADDY LONGLEGS:
all this crap about strapping loads is a stealth tax as far as I’m concerned. Again the driver will be hit in the pocket and fined. we strap pallets with 6 boxes on them!!! Has the world gone mad. tax, tax tax.No i dont agree with you at all, its so important to strap your load. I think its crazy that uk trailers dont have boards in though and instead insist on them silly internal straps. The companies that we load out of are partly to blame though, they need to start wrapping pallets with corner protectors, they shouldnt just be aloud to throw [zb] on a pallet with one wind of wrap round and think thats enough!
I agree 100%
I currently work for a builders merchants on HIAB delivery & I can safely say that anyone wanting to become one needs to be able to strap a load 
My truck carries 4x straps !
Both the manager & the yard foreman agree with me that if it needs more than 4x straps then this load configuration is not leaving the yard.
I’ve only ever had 1x incident whilst in transit in more than 4yrs of builders merchant driving, a pallet of blocks toppled (whilst strapped) during an emergency stop.
I’d welcome a tug from VOSA, I’m regularly driving around the city & regularly without any extra strapping or roping of the load. Mr. VOSA bod would need to be very clued up if he were to hope to successfully fine me for having an unsecure load.
Surely if the load is on the vehicle and not ripped through the curtains and all over the floor then nobody can say it is unsafe. The only time a load can be declared as unsafe if it has fallen off the vehicle and through the curtain then it unsafe. In every crime in this lane you need proof. How can you be done on something that hasnt happened ■■? Years ago i used to do multi drops with building products. Despite strapping the tile adhesive buckets would still fall over creating a buldge in the curtains. Yes its probably unsafe leaning into the curtains but in the umpteen times that happened to every driver in that company not once did they ever fall off or come through the curtains. So you could say that the restraining method used was the curtains and they never failed.
Am I missing something here? Hasn’t it always been the responsibility of thedriver to check & secure the load? Even if you drive with that load everyday & it doesn’t move , doesn’t mean there won’t be a day where it will move & when that day comes won’t you wish you would have taken the time to strap it ? Remembervany load can move & potentially come off , I guess its looking at taking preventive measures to stop that , i thought we were all professional on here so strapping & securing a load should b3 second nature & not moaned about …
I had a night run on agency a few years back with a full load of toilet paper on pallets that was loaded onto the tautliner.
Arrived at the warehouse & found that every bloody pallet was strapped down (WTF)
In this case it was H&S gone mad IMO. 
Strapping?
Has anyone had anything like a twistlock fail?.. 
I don’t agree either.
I drive a 26t rigid and
with any curtainsider, the bit above the floor is only weather protection,nothing else, and that
includes the headboard and the doors.
Granted, a tautliner normally has a steel headboard,and that could be considered load-restraining in
certain circumstances…but… we’ve all seen pics of steel headboards being torn apart.
Virtually any curtain-sided vehicle should be regarded as a flatbed with an umbrella.
i would guess the majority of drivers would say light stuff like bog roll, crisps, empty plastic bottles etc, don’t need to be strapped in a curtainsider, but big heavy machines, steel, concrete etc, defiantly does need to be secured, pretty much common sense. but people are going to have different ideas on how heavy light stuff can be, before it needs strapping and how light heavy stuff can be, so strapping isn’t needed.
so to be fair to the ones making the rules, that ensure the numpties who wouldn’t secure a big heavy machine, secure them. i don’t see that they had any option other than to say, strap everything.
and no, just because something hasn’t fallen off doesn’t mean it’s secure 
206doorman:
I don’t agree either.
I drive a 26t rigid and
with any curtainsider, the bit above the floor is only weather protection,nothing else, and that
includes the headboard and the doors.
Granted, a tautliner normally has a steel headboard,and that could be considered load-restraining in
certain circumstances…but… we’ve all seen pics of steel headboards being torn apart.Virtually any curtain-sided vehicle should be regarded as a flatbed with an umbrella.
a headboard can be used as a restraint, but extra restraint may be needed if the rating is exceeded
Problem is there’s probably a greater general personal injury risk from a ‘strap everything’ policy from people falling off trailer beds or pedestrians getting hit by a flying ratctet strap hook. There’s also a cost of clearing up shed loads from the road versus cost of goods being damaged by straps from an overall economic point of view.
Most loads consisting or small boxes etc wrapped on pallets just won’t be held even if strapped, the straps will slacken almost immediately and it’s still really down to the strength of the pallet wrap and the curtain to contain the load in conditions where it might shift.
206doorman:
I don’t agree either.
Virtually any curtain-sided vehicle should be regarded as a flatbed with an umbrella.
Except this isn’t really true as I’ve loaded a curtainsider with small card bales floor to ceiling countless times and they’ve always got to where I was going. I’ve also handballed in things like big boxes of childrens toys floor to ceiling with no load restraint.
Neither of these loads would have got there like this on a flatbed like this so this endlessly repeated statement about curstainsiders clearly isn’t true.
bloke who loaded this steel got done for an insecure load! i think it said 96 straps in the article. the ratchets were pulling the floor up.
