This may be a daft question from someone who has always run with fridges / dry vans, but :
Do you have to have a TIR cord on a tautliner nowadays ■■? only doing Espana on a one off, thought I’d better just check !!!
Nope no requirement to have one, but if the load needs to be sealed you are better to have one otherwise it is going to take a lot of seals. 
PS Sorry it took so long to answer your question.
Thanks for the quick reply !
Woodster
PS - I think I’ll invest in one !
if you do get one woodster dont let it give you a false sense of security, i parked one night near mons, on the services, under the lights, with a sealed corded tilt. i left at 0400 the next morning after a quick look around the trl. when i got to the ids in calais i noticed the cord hanging loose at the front corner. i drove to the ferry booth and asked them to call the gendarmes for me. they pulled a kosovan family of four out from the groupage. they had been put into the trl while i slept and the cord had been glued back together. thank god it was weak glue!
I had the same happen to me, parked at the tunnel truckstop in Calais all sealed up, I walked round and even pulled on the cord in several places and all seemed ok. Went through the CO2 test at the tunnel and found 8 stowaways in the back.
What they tend to do is stretch the cord so as a part of it that is normally tucked behind one of the curtain buckles is in the open, they then cut it put the stowawaysin and then they place a small pin nail in the cord and glue it with super glue, when they let go it hides neatly behind the buckle again.
It would be wise to put one on, it shows that you are taking as many precautions as possible to prevent illegal immigrants, but as said above DONT RELY ON IT as a deterent and always check when ever you have stopped.
Paul
as coffee says, there is no legal requirement but it is best to carry one even if you don’t need it, a customer may want to seal the load and at calais now the english immigration control is there, if you are caught after passport control with people inside the trailer then you are classed as being on uk soil and will come under the uk law on immigration, you will be required to prove that you have done everything possible to restrict access to said travellers to the uk.
Johnny, if you are caught with illegals after passport control, doesn’t this mean the governments controls have failed?
spaceman:
Johnny, if you are caught with illegals after passport control, doesn’t this mean the governments controls have failed?
YES 