Rhythm Thief:
The trailers I pull have a little badge on the curtains saying they’re load bearing up to the full max vehicle weight.
I would very much be interested to see a picture of the little badge you refer to.
The BS EN 12642-XL standard is the higher of the two standards used in Europe (not UK) for vehicle body construction. Usually the curtains of an ‘XL’ trailer or vehicle will only withstand 40% of the payload. i.e a trailer with 27,000kg payload the curtains could retain up to 10,800kg. BUT … only if certain criteria is met, which is usally
- Stable load
- Coefficient of friction greater than 0.3 (a standard wooden pallet on a wooden deck is about 0.3) so to achieve this you may need friction matting under the load
- No more than 80mm (3 inch) gap between the load and the curtains.
So on a 27,000 kg payload that’d leave 16,200kg still free to go where it wants and further restraint would be needed. This would be indicated on the manufacturers plate or a seperate plate/label giving all of the capacities.
I can go to my local curtain place and have them make me a curtain that’ll hold 20t easy … the minute I attach it to the standard curtainsider body it’ll hold as much as that body can - probably very little.
There was an operator wrote a letter to commercial motor explaining he spent £1200 per trailer fitting netting to restrain the load - then fastened them to the original internal strap runners. Complete waste. Apart from whcih - the nets he described would only act as CONTAINMENT and not RESTRAINT. Restraint secures an item to the vehicle so it cannot move independantly. Containment just keeps it inside.
If you have an android phone go on google play and search for an app called lashing calculator. This little app can calculate the correct restraints required based on the recognised standards of most countries and it works very well. It’s free as well! There’s also an app from the HSL (part of the HSE) but that’s 99p
The problem is that according to some European documents an emergency stop, emergency lane change or both together is to be considered as ‘normal driving conditions’ and the load should be restrained to allow for this. In Europe they maintain that only 80% of the loads weight will act in a forward direction under braking (50% sideways and backwards). The DFT code of practice says 100% of the loads weight can act forward meaning our standard is higher than the rest of Europe
Also - as already pointed out the VOSA enforcement is £100 graduated fixed penalty and a PG9 which will affect the operators OCRS. Therefore if you have the kit to secure the load but haven’t done it the operator may not be happy. If you don’t have the kit then maybe it’s their fault.
As for those that say “How do you secure a pallet when the straps will damage it” … simple - you can’t. it hasn’t been packed for transport in that kind of vehicle. Stick it a box and VOSA won’t be interested (unless it gets out). The issue is that we try to carry a multitude of different items in curtains when they really aren’t suitable. if you wouldn’t take it on a flat bed then it’s no good in a curtain. The sooner people get that idea in their heads the better.
Of course - as pointed out by wheelnut, if you get a penalty and don’t agree then you can elect to see them in court, but be prepared to go up against their expert witnesses that wrote the VOSA load security matrix armed with lots and lots of recognised approved codes of practice and BS EN standards etc.
