Carryfast:
dafdave:
I used to carry p/board regularly from boulougne to portbury[before it was lafarge]and always strapped it.P/board is fairly stable you may be getting confused with chipboard which can be lethal.
regards dave.
Just about everything which is carried in the weights and quantities of a truckload can be lethal if it’s not secured correctly or if it’s carried in/on the wrong type of truck for the job.From a bulk refuse carrier being used as a tipper loaded to capacity with rubble/earth 
to 22 tonnes of chip or plaster board,paper reels,steel coils, or whatever etc etc without any securing as in the OP’s loopy idea
I agree it should be strapped, but im just mere agency on his 2nd day there, but this is a HUGE company that has been transporting this stuff day in day out for years, NOBODY straps it, the only straps available are the internal straps which would be pointless to use.
God knows what is the correct thing to do, but surely the company knows whether it should be strapped or not, i presume one of their trucks has been pulled over during the past few years and if Mr VOSA thought it was unsafe then something would have been done about it ■■!!
just a thought but when we used to load plasterboard out of lafarge we were told not to strap it but one thing i did see was the curtains had a tag inside them with a load security/strength rating on them, ie the curtains werent just to keep the load dry they were actually stong enough to stop it falling out the sides as well, as i say i maybe barking up the wrong tree as it was a few years ago but it could explain the lack of need for security in the op,s question
chaversdad:
just a thought but when we used to load plasterboard out of lafarge we were told not to strap it but one thing i did see was the curtains had a tag inside them with a load security/strength rating on them, ie the curtains werent just to keep the load dry they were actually stong enough to stop it falling out the sides as well, as i say i maybe barking up the wrong tree as it was a few years ago but it could explain the lack of need for security in the op,s question
But we are in a different time zone, a few years ago, no one worried about VOSA and it would be very rare for them to open the back of a tilt or Tautliner to look inside, you could argue that an unsecure load was not unsecure, until it hit the ground, but to use a common TV phrase, “we are where we are”
I have been in the position in France, Luxembourg and Germany where the Gendarme, Politie or BAG have opened the trailer and clambered around the load. Because most of the companies in Europe will not allow you off the premises until the load is secured to their satisfaction. I have been given many a friendly wave to continue my journey.
Rockape suggests that this company is huge and knows best, but I bet you a penny to a piece of manure they would be the first one to blame the driver when the load squished a family of 5 Somali immigrants. Because something has been done for years, it is not always correct, sometimes familiarity breeds contempt.
We have all cut some corners, saved a bit of time here and there, luckily most of us have got away with it. I would be tempted now to ask the question of the H&S department in this huge company, and then ask them to give me a letter explaining the company policy. Signed of course
For the past 10 years every company I worked with has issued me with a drivers handbook and when the manure hits the ventilation shaft, you better be doing exactly as the book says, irrespective of how urgent the load is.
Discuss 
Wheel Nut:
chaversdad:
just a thought but when we used to load plasterboard out of lafarge we were told not to strap it but one thing i did see was the curtains had a tag inside them with a load security/strength rating on them, ie the curtains werent just to keep the load dry they were actually stong enough to stop it falling out the sides as well, as i say i maybe barking up the wrong tree as it was a few years ago but it could explain the lack of need for security in the op,s question
But we are in a different time zone, a few years ago, no one worried about VOSA and it would be very rare for them to open the back of a tilt or Tautliner to look inside, you could argue that an unsecure load was not unsecure, until it hit the ground, but to use a common TV phrase, “we are where we are”
Rockape suggests that this company is huge and knows best, but I bet you a penny to a piece of manure they would be the first one to blame the driver when the load squished a family of 5 Somali immigrants.
We have all cut some corners, saved a bit of time here and there, luckily most of us have got away with it.
I don’t ever remember those days WheelNut when a load was only declared insecure when it actually hit the ground with a family of Somali or any other immigrants getting squished as collateral damage in the process it’s just that I reckon that the law trusted us to do the job or else so it’s probably only the preventive enforcement that’s been toughened up obviously with good reason with 22 tonne loads running around on curtainsiders with nothing holding them on the back. and probably vosa is doing the driver a favour in that case considering the penalty and jail sentence involved for squishing those Somalis But I would’nt want to bet my freedom against a sentence at HM pleasure on the strengh of some curtains versus a 22 tonne load of general.But box trailers etc seem to be a grey area in that context ?.
Whether you’re a new driver, or an old hand, secure your load properly. Like others have said, just cos it’s been done like that for years, don’t make it right, or safe. If all goes ■■■■ up and it kills or injures someone, or even if it only makes a mess on the road, it’s your arse that gets reamed out. Pallets on top have been mentioned, so why not do that ?
At risk of going on. Something that happened many years ago was that there were four of us loading out of a food factory one day (in Brisbane), I had an 8 legger. We were all loading cartons of tinned green beans for the docks, which weren’t far away. I roped and sheeted mine, while the others stood taking the ■■■■, asking me if I was going to Melbourne or Sydney.
Oh how I laughed when one of them shot his load all over the road in a very busy part of town, I helped pick it up, but boy did I have a good time returning the ■■■■ taking.
Luckily, no one was hurt, I think a few people ■■■■ themselves, but not even a copper turned up, so all was well.
Moral of the story is, tie it down.
peterm:
Whether you’re a new driver, or an old hand, secure your load properly. Like others have said, just cos it’s been done like that for years, don’t make it right, or safe. If all goes ■■■■ up and it kills or injures someone, or even if it only makes a mess on the road, it’s your arse that gets reamed out. Pallets on top have been mentioned, so why not do that ?
At risk of going on. Something that happened many years ago was that there were four of us loading out of a food factory one day (in Brisbane), I had an 8 legger. We were all loading cartons of tinned green beans for the docks, which weren’t far away. I roped and sheeted mine, while the others stood taking the ■■■■, asking me if I was going to Melbourne or Sydney.
Oh how I laughed when one of them shot his load all over the road in a very busy part of town, I helped pick it up,
Moral of the story is, tie it down.
Or the moral of the story is that it does’nt matter how stupid some are they’re also sometimes lucky enough to find someone who’ll help them out when they zb up instead of just standing there and taking the whotsit out of em. that’s probably what the coppers would have done if they’d have been there before writing out the ticket. And there’s always someone who’ll take a job with a flat running lots of loads of general haulage a few miles up the road instead of 1 load lots of miles. 
I know because I was one of them before I knew better.
graham schroeder:
la farge portbury brit gypsum east leake only use internall straps as advised by companies as not to damage load with rachets carry it all the time with this method as advised to only advice carry foil back broads up against the headboard
Thats what the driving assessor told me when I asked him on interview yesterday.
I used to do British Gypsum on flat trailers, never had a load move, obviously it was roped & sheeted, but it doesn’t move around like chipboard or MDF anyway, I once did a collection from a site that had the wrong kind delivered, only they’d broken down the ‘sets’ & restacked it, that stuff was alive, some of it had been stacked face to face instead of back to face, plasterboard has a rougher finish on one side, I ended up using every piece of rope I had on that & it was only a couple of ‘sets’.
Eventually my firm got some curtainsiders, we only used to rope or strap the double stacked ‘sets’ then, still never moved around, but todays lorries are a bit faster & there’s a lot more idiots doing stupid things out on the road now, so I would say that using the internal straps is a minimum requirement, surprised in today’s HSE obsessed world that you got out of the gate with it.
The way things are going they’ll be having us strap down loads in tippers soon
Why drive for 3 hours worrying about the load when 10 minutes sorts it out. You as the driver carry full responsibility for an un safe load, what everyone else does is totally irrelevant a pallet or length of timber to protect the load or use the internal straps and stand 2 pallets stood up on their end at the back with a strap to secure looks good if V.O.S.A look in the back, you decide whether you want to learn the hard way or the easy one.