I passed my rigid in August 06 and have been working for agencies on and off and also a couple of removal companys. When trucks are moving palletised freight isnt it common sense to always secure the pallets by strapping them down or do you only do that if there isnt a full load - ie when they could slide around inside the trailer or back of the rigid truck? Its probably a stupid question to a lot of the experienced guys but when I ask people I see loading they always say things like ‘oh theres no need for that mate’ or ‘havent got the the time - itll be okay’. But what happens if you get to your destination and its moved and even come off the pallets. If theres only half a load do you secure it - or does nobody bother at all, whether its a full load or not??
Your thoughts and comments please!!
Regards
Depends on the type of goods steamer.
if you’re not sure STRAP IT
most of the time with the stuff we carry we just strap the back 2 pallets but occasionaly its more.
At the end of the day would you rather spend 15 minutes strapping or many hours trying to explain to Mr.Plod why its fell out of the trailer and landed on a car or worse.
So you would just strap the back 2 pallets to stop any backward movement -but if its full you dont need to?
It depends, some stuff won’t shift no matter what. On the other hand, I’ve tried a load of trolleys, and they wouldn’t stay still with every strap I had in place.
You have to take a sensible look at the load, and how many drops you have, and just work it out for yourself. A curtainsider or flat will need a lot more strapping than a box usually. A nice box, strapped securely to a pallet will almost never move, but an uneven lump is almost bound to shift. I tend to look and work out what’s going to be a real pain in the [zb] if it shifts, and strap that, plus one at the back. I have done loads that you couldn’t get a strap round they filled the wagon so much, at that point it’s not going to shift unless the wagon falls apart.
Each load is different, it’s mainly (un)common sense, have the courage to deal with it and make it safe as you see fit. After all YOU are responsible for it the minute you take the wagon onto the road. You WILL make the odd mistake and spend an hour picking something up, it happens, learn from it.
steamer:
But what happens if you get to your destination and its moved and even come off the pallets.
In the early part of my ‘driving career’ I did as most of the others did i.e. didn’t strap them as they wouldn’t move. That was full loads (24 pallets then) of tins.
My lesson was learned after ‘grandma in a Micra’ pulled out in front of me whilst on an inter-depot run. Re-stacking 24 pallets by hand before they could be forked off taught me a lesson that day!!! 
In hindsight, it was crazy to not strap the pallets and I’d have regretted it a lot more if they’d fell out of the side through a rip in the curtains and killed someone!!
EDIT: [zb] = f o r k e d (Not a swear word lat time I checked! 
)
I did a lot of sprinter van with trailer work around western europe and one guy said he never strapped his pallets down - until one day in England a car pulled out in front of him, he slammed on and one of the pallets partly burst through the wooden bulkead into the cab!! He was quickly converted to strapping them down after that.
One of the worst things to carry, even if chained, is steel.
Make sure that you have a good strong headboard.
Got a 6 wheeler rigd flatbed loaded one day with 16 x 1 tonne palletted packs of 8’x4’ sheet steel of about 1mm thick but they were not end-banded - only side banded.
Boss said they would not slip forward, so I chained them really tight, got to 10mph in the yard and slammed on - ALL THE CENTRES OF THE PACKS SLIPPED OUT FORWARD 
Boss did not ask anyone to carry such a load again 
In my short time as a driver, I’ve came across a number of things that IMO definitely benefitted from having a strap fitted.
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Anything heavy and awkward shaped - regardless of how well secured it is to the pallet.
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Drums/Barrels - Can either tip over or literally “go for a walk” in the back of a motor if not restrained. Even if they are banded to the pallet, I take no chances here.
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Tins stacked on a pallet - especially paint - they tend to only be shrink wrapped to the pallet - and there is no way I’ll ever depend on this alone to hold them securely in place.
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Windows - not only is there a danger of broken glass should they tip over, timber frames are very expensive. Strapping these down not only helps from the safety angle - they also play a part in ensuring that the load reaches the customer in the condition that they left the factory.
I would NEVER drive a vehicle containing any of the above without making sure that they were secured firmly to the vehicle.
But it’s YOUR call - as an earlier poster has said - IF IN DOUBT - STRAP IT DOWN!
DONT BE A CLOWN STRAP IT DOWN
You must strap down your load no matter how many pallets
All loads need to be secured to prevent them from moving either forward ,backwards or sideways by using suitable restraints depending on the type of load 
Thanks for your comments!! Now I know!!
Regards
Dont worry too much about pallets of bog roll or corn flakes… But like a alot have said, if in doubt strap it!
strap your load,why because it will move
and you will regret it after it happens when
it is too late,IF you put load restraint
or load security, it will show you various posts
also look in the useful links site there are some
tips to sites which will help you, if you need any more advice just ask ,some one will give a answer,
marcustandy:
In the early part of my ‘driving career’ I did as most of the others did i.e. didn’t strap them as they wouldn’t move. That was full loads (24 pallets then) of tins.
This should be in the theory test 
Similar thing happened to me in my second week of driving, fortunately there were only four pallets to be restacked (at night in a layby - how dodgy did I look? )
ive lost a pallet of sugar out the back door of a rigid once, just strap it down for god sakes
why not go on a weekend load securing course, you will possibly learn something that may save someones life maybe your own,once saw a bloke open his back doors only to get buried under aload of pressings, he was lucky just lots of cuts and scratches lost the end of his little finger.
Thats not a bad idea Airleak. I didnt know you could do that. Rather than spend ages messing around, probably better to learn properly. Also roping and sheeting. Who would run these kind of courses. Just a normal HGV training school. Anyone know?
Quite a number of HGV training schools don’t run such courses. But if you find one that does, let us know?
A lot of it is just simple common sense, but roping and sheeting is an almost mythical art these days.
I once applied for a job that said must be able to rope and sheet and the guy said to me can you do it, I said no - can you train me, and he just said no - and put the phone down
allikat:
Quite a number of HGV training schools don’t run such courses. But if you find one that does, let us know?A lot of it is just simple common sense, but roping and sheeting is an almost mythical art these days.
This MAY be remedied by the forthcoming driver cpc.
I have e-mailed the DSA and asked them - will put reply on here as soon as I get it.
look in the driver mags sometimes see them advertised,
maybe if a couple of like minded old uns would join me we could put somethiing together-ie roping sheeting chains straps etc