Own Account Driver:
Rjan:
…
Yeah it does.
It’s all based on flawed assumptions that any kind of curtain provides zero load containment and a plywood box van side provides 100% load containment which is of course obvious ■■■■■■■■ and neither is true.
Their load security thing isn’t gospel it’s their own made up guidance made up by people who have no experience. I can’t believe we managed all those years without anyone dying because crates of milk have never been strapped to milk floats but not a secure load according to the DVSA’s moronic ‘guidance’.
Just because they accept the situation with milk floats doesn’t mean any of us would think it reasonable for a curtainsider to be rumbling along at 56mph with unsecured tall cages full of milk.
You’re right that curtains are not 0% effective and box vans are not 100%, but it is certainly of that order.
In my experience, those firms that use box vans usually have a dedicated product where there has been forethought and accumulated experience about load security. The only times I’ve had a problem with goods toppling out the back of a box van is when they have been unsecured contrary to good practice - usually the fault was on my part such as forgetting a bar or a back strap. Heavyish goods can usually either be arranged to form a positive fit naturally with the trailer, or can be packed out to make them secure against the trailer sides or strapped into the side rails in some way. I’ve never heard of goods punching out the side of a box van. With the odd bar or strap applied, most drivers would agree that box vans are as good as gold for load security.
Fly-by-nights all use curtainsiders. I’ve seen all sorts carried without any regard to security. You can’t pack against the curtain, because even if it is load-bearing it still flexes, and it’s not uncommon for goods to topple and rest against the curtain, which is obviously a problem if you’re offloading it via the curtain side. And certainly going back years, curtains were not load-bearing.
So I can well understand why the DVSA tend to focus on curtainsiders, and curtainside operators, as being a particular problem.
And although I accept bubble wrap is a minimal risk of breaching the curtain, there is still a risk of toppling if the curtain is released, and I imagine even the lightest industrial rolls of bubblewrap could knock a person off their feet if it falls from the bed above or is going to cause a struggle to move the curtain, and therein lies the problem.
Even with box vans, if the DVSA open the back doors and anything heavier than a balloon falls onto them, or if there is a real risk of it, then you’re going to get a ticket for load security.
That’s why I say the question is being approached by many drivers from the wrong perspective. The question is not whether you can get away without spilling the goods over the road at the first turn, but of whether the goods are reasonably secure in position they have been placed, including during any steps you may take to access or unload the trailer.
The real problem in the industry as I see it, is that curtainsiders are used for too many things they shouldn’t be. Rather than being perceived as a flatbed with weather protection, they are perceived as box vans with removable sides.
The DVSA accept that curtainsiders can be used like box vans for general consumer goods, and that is when the curtain is rated for it, the goods fully fill the load area, the back side is secured, and the goods themselves by their nature or by the usual manner of their packing (onto wrapped pallets or whatever) are reasonably secure on the trailer bed in that situation.
It’s not the same as saying that “nothing inside a load-bearing curtain ever needs to be strapped because the curtain will catch everything”, which is how many drivers are still approaching the issue.
Any links ? as we are sometimes in a vaguely related situation ie ugly loads that cannot be secured in a “classic” (read simple) way. Not saying your mates rocks are ugly by the way 
