There’s a bit more in this one !
trevHCS:
So essentially shes an academic. Out of interest, what in that lot qualifies her to know anything about loading and restraints!? Its not an engineering assignment and not ADR.I vote we get Diesel Dave to run these courses as I suspect he knows 100x more than Nina about anything truck related, and likely doesn’t have a load of unrelated letters after his name.
Leave this to VOSA please.
Of course it’s engineering.
I’ve said it before, a group of engineers could very quickly learn an awful lot more than a seasoned driver on load security.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done my fair share on curtain siders and with many things just zipped up and gone. But the one thing you always here drivers say is, just drive to the load etc, as obviously everyone does, but…you’re not driving on a closed course, you can’t control what other may do, looking back I do think I, like the vast majority have been lucky. So I do agree with the “modern” way of it needs strapping, but you’re gonna get the situation like the insulation, if it’s not in an XL rated trailer, then it needs strapping as daftvas that may be.
Some interesting links here, and I’d like to thank those who took the trouble to post them. They’ve been saved, and may be printed out and thrown at management the next time I have a barney with them over me refusing to take a load out on safety grounds.
As an aside, I recall mention in one of those legal case studies you sometimes find in the various trade comics of an attempted prosecution of a driver for an unsafe load. Cant remember if it was plod or the ministry (It was quite a while ago) but the essence of their argument for prosecution was “…this load is not safely secured because if you have an accident the load could do this…” etc. It was proven in court that you did not and could not secure a load against a possible accident, merely against conditions one would normally encounter on the roads.
I really wish I could find the appropriate citation, but it was before t’tinternet so the comic wouldnt have been online.
The only way load security will ever improve is when the German model is used ie the consignor, consignee and driver are responsible for the security of the load. While the law allows a blame the driver culture to continue then nothing will change.