As I have said before I drive a 7.5 box. one job i had included 6 250 litre barrels of oil (4 on one pallet and 2 on another) the other three drops were inconsequential in terms of weight. There was an issue loading the oil on (tail lift didn’t like the four barrels) but eventually I got it all on by braking the drop down onto more pallets. However i then couldn’t get the tail lift to tuck under the body when I tried to fold it in it hit on the bottom. I went and spoke to the transport office and their only solution was move the oil to the headboard. I really didn’t want to take it all off and back on again as it had taken me 2 hours to sort it in the first place. (i know lazy bugger) so I took of the last 2 pallets and was able to close the tail lift and then got a fork truck driver to put the last 2 back on.
I spoke to someone about this as i was bothered i was doing something wrong and they suggested it was overloaded as it was obviously a suspension issue as removing 2 pallets fixed the issue with the tail lift folding away. paperwork for the drop with the oil said 1.9 tonnes (there were other bits for the drop as well as the barrels). total weight for all the drops was 2.8 tonne. On the plate it just has front and rear axel weights both are over the weight i was carrying.
Question is did i do something wrong and is it the planners job to make sure the lorry isn’t overloaded (if it was) and the drops are organised to allow for safe loading.
There’s only one person responsible for the weight distribution of the vehicle and that’s the driver, but I suspect you knew that before you asked the question.
I have a question for you though, why do you feel the need fo add your name at the bottom of every post?
Does it make you feel more important?
Upto you the driver.
Problem I found years ago when did multidrop.
Could guarantee if had load rearranged due to heavy pallets.that you’d get to a drop and.we don’t have a forklift and.the pallet you need is.burried in the middle.
What I hated used drive daf rigid and.if.you put any kind of weigh on the head board the front mudflap used to dig into the ground.and.could hear them.scraping the road
Without seeing the vehicle it’s not possible to say for sure, but unless the rear wheels are at the very back of the body then having 6 barrels of oil weighing some 1.3 tons 'ish over and possibly behind the rear wheels would have caused if not a rear axle overload then an imbalanced load for sure.
The only way to tell for sure is to load your vehicle normally with a known weight, filling the body fully and then weigh both axles, knowing this one can them judge how to load in the future.
You can judge to some extent how the vehicle is sitting (arse down like a dragster taking off) and by how much correctly inflated tyres are bulging compared to more normal loads.
Such heavy density loads on a lightish motor are always an issue, ideally you’d place those 6 drums right in the middle of the body which would site them near enough 2/3rds along the chassis, so the bulk of the weight would be towards the heavier drive axle but you don’t want heavy stuff like that behind the drive axle because any weight lifting off the steer isn’t lost its nwo on the rear and such weights lifting the steer axle make the vehicle unstable on the road, tail wagging the dog routine, and it looks bad so a keen eyed VOSA or whatever they are called this week would want to have a look see what’s going on.
If you looked inside a heavier rigid carrying heavy pallets, say he’s got 12 pallets on (capacity 14) and especially if its multi drop, chances are he’s got one single pallet or sometimes two behind the headboard and only has pairs of pallets going back from there, if they were doubled up the other way by the time he’s got rid of 4 he’s overloaded the steer axle.
It’s all a learning curve, no bugger knew it all before they started, and even when you’ve been doing it for 40 years you’ll still be learning.
Juddian:
so the bulk of the weight would be towards the heavier drive axle but you don’t want heavy stuff like that behind the drive axle because any weight lifting off the steer isn’t lost its nwo on the rear and such weights lifting the steer axle make the vehicle unstable on the road
Exactly so.
If the vehicle front wheel arch gap is larger than it normally is, alarm bells should be ringing.
An overloading prosecution will be against both the driver and the company. Are you working for a parcels/ pallet carrier where it will be your job to attempt to clear your bay of goods stacked in it, or in a different set up in which you are issued with the delivery notes for goods to take from the warehouse/bay and load those? If the latter then the company is issuing instructions to you about what goes on the vehicle. In which case if the weights are declared on the delivery notes then they should be adding up the total weights and not instructing you to load an excessive amount.
How it goes on the vehicle if you are loading it will always be up to you and you will be primarily responsible, as is the situation in the first example if you are selecting which goods to put on. The Company is still culpable but has a mitigation that the important decision was yours. It is the other way around if you are told exactly what to put on the vehicle but you will still be culpable with mitigation.
If someone else has loaded the vehicle it is still your responsibility to check that the load is not just secure but within the weight limit for the vehicle. It is the company’s responsibilty to ensure that you know the carrying capacity of the vehicle.
cav551:
An overloading prosecution will be against both the driver and the company. Are you working for a parcels/ pallet carrier where it will be your job to attempt to clear your bay of goods stacked in it, or in a different set up in which you are issued with the delivery notes for goods to take from the warehouse/bay and load those? If the latter then the company is issuing instructions to you about what goes on the vehicle. In which case if the weights are declared on the delivery notes then they should be adding up the total weights and not instructing you to load an excessive amount.
How it goes on the vehicle if you are loading it will always be up to you and you will be primarily responsible, as is the situation in the first example if you are selecting which goods to put on. The Company is still culpable but has a mitigation that the important decision was yours. It is the other way around if you are told exactly what to put on the vehicle but you will still be culpable with mitigation.
If someone else has loaded the vehicle it is still your responsibility to check that the load is not just secure but within the weight limit for the vehicle. It is the company’s responsibilty to ensure that you know the carrying capacity of the vehicle.
that was my point but you put it better. I am given a bit of paper with the loads on in reverse job order. so the first pallet brought out to me by the fork truck driver is going to be for the last drop. As i have a box body rather than a curtain sider it therefor has to go to the headboard.
This is what was trying to get at. should i at that point decide that i don’t want it first and ask the fork lift driver to put it to the side? or should i expect the guys and gals in the office to have worked all that out.
cav551:
An overloading prosecution will be against both the driver and the company. Are you working for a parcels/ pallet carrier where it will be your job to attempt to clear your bay of goods stacked in it, or in a different set up in which you are issued with the delivery notes for goods to take from the warehouse/bay and load those? If the latter then the company is issuing instructions to you about what goes on the vehicle. In which case if the weights are declared on the delivery notes then they should be adding up the total weights and not instructing you to load an excessive amount.
How it goes on the vehicle if you are loading it will always be up to you and you will be primarily responsible, as is the situation in the first example if you are selecting which goods to put on. The Company is still culpable but has a mitigation that the important decision was yours. It is the other way around if you are told exactly what to put on the vehicle but you will still be culpable with mitigation.
If someone else has loaded the vehicle it is still your responsibility to check that the load is not just secure but within the weight limit for the vehicle. It is the company’s responsibilty to ensure that you know the carrying capacity of the vehicle.
that was my point but you put it better. I am given a bit of paper with the loads on in reverse job order. so the first pallet brought out to me by the fork truck driver is going to be for the last drop. As i have a box body rather than a curtain sider it therefor has to go to the headboard.
This is what was trying to get at. should i at that point decide that i don’t want it first and ask the fork lift driver to put it to the side? or should i expect the guys and gals in the office to have worked all that out.
I don’t suppose compact heavy density loads like this are the norm on your job, maybe worth having a word with planning dept that when something unusual like this crops up could they let you (and the forkies) know, highlighted on paperwork, as it is sensibly the forkies bring the load out in reverse order.
Do you get to see the manifest beforehand, would this heavy delivery have stod out from the usual jumble of lighter stuff, if you don’t see it before that needs to change.
Is your 7.5 on air suspension? If it is, then putting the key in the ignition and maybe having to run the engine would of helped with your tailift tucking away.
If the heavy stuff needs loading out of drop order, then that is what needs to be done. Loading in drop order is nice, but it doesn`t come before safety.
If you need to unload and rearrange the load, then that is what you do.
cooper1203:
I am given a bit of paper with the loads on in reverse job order. so the first pallet brought out to me by the fork truck driver is going to be for the last drop. As i have a box body rather than a curtain sider it therefor has to go to the headboard.
This is what was trying to get at. should i at that point decide that i don’t want it first and ask the fork lift driver to put it to the side?
Yep. You’re the driver, you’re responsible for ensuring the load is distributed so that it doesn’t overload either axle nor that the total doesn’t overload the vehicle.
I did a bit of night trunking for Nigel Rice in Beverley on pallet network. As they were loading me up one particularly busy night I decided to tot up the weights on the labels. Good job I did too because if I’d not I’d have been running at well over 44 tonnes and knowing how customers regularly under-declare weights for a cheaper rate it could’ve been heading towards 50 tonnes. So they got told to take several pallets off.