Nowdays, Banks are better known for being covered by TARPs than flatbed loads. 
wheelnutt:
Saaamon:
Its about time the UK took load security more seriously, that whole clamp down is and was a complete farce. Side boards, anti slip mats, corner protectors, min of 20 straps onboard and anchors points all the way along a trailer should all be standard on lorries.Could not agree more. The UK should and must accept at least the EU standard when it comes to load security. DVSA is struggling enforcing an archaic rule and way too many hauliers and drivers risk life and limb treating a curtainsider as a box day in day out.
Melodramatic, much?
With all this life and limb there must be endless cases online you could link to.
Rhythm Thief:
Bear in mind that an awful lot of stuff is, and has been for years, moved on curtainsiders with no additional restraint other than the curtains themselves (yes, I know they’re not technically load restraints, but it takes an awful lot for anything to fall through them), with no problems whatsoever. It’s obviously nonsense to say such loads are intrinsically dangerous, since stuff is carried in this way day after day after day, and has been for donkey’s years. I know that some items need restraining with ratchet straps, and I’d never hesitate to either restrain something if I felt it needed it or refuse to carry it if my employers hadn’t provided me with the equipment to secure it, but for the most part, well wrapped palletised freight is perfectly safe unsecured on a curtainsider trailer. It must be, else I’d have had stuff strewn all over the motorway every night for the past ten or twelve years …
^^^this^^^
Common sense is all you need to use, if it will move, strap it, if it won’t, don’t 
Pallets of canned goods, may seem stable, but hit a kerb or going into a roundabout a bit lively and they’ll shift, so they should be strapped and also have some kind of corner board on them. I’ve moved 1000s of tons of them without any falling out of a trailer, but in reality that was as much to do with luck as it was anything else.
A load is insecure unless it is secured, gravity is not a load securement device 
chicane:
So a tautliner (the most common over here) is a type of curtainsider never heard of them being called anything else tautliner/curtainsider is interchangeable. A kestrel is a kind of bird so calling it either is correct unless you’re an incredibly ■■■■ twitcher.
… I know some of the more ■■■■ ones prefer the term ‘birder’… 
GCR2ERF:
chicane:
So a tautliner (the most common over here) is a type of curtainsider never heard of them being called anything else tautliner/curtainsider is interchangeable. A kestrel is a kind of bird so calling it either is correct unless you’re an incredibly ■■■■ twitcher.… I know some of the more ■■■■ ones prefer the term ‘birder’…
I rest my case m’lud 
wheelnutt:
Rhythm Thief:
well wrapped palletised freight is perfectly safe unsecured on a curtainsider trailer…Absolute tosh.
Rhythm Thief:
It must be, else I’d have had stuff strewn all over the motorway every night for the past ten or twelve years …You are overdue to lose a load, give us your reg please so we know to give you a wide berth while you keep pushing your luck.
Depends what I’m given to drive. But in all seriousness, I - as we all did - drove curtainsiders for years without a thought of strapping down “normal” pallets within them. Most night trunkers still don’t, I would guess: it’s certainly tricky to strap stuff to the top deck without clambering all over the load (which we’re expressly forbidden to do), and there’s more to strapping a load which consists of pallets of all different shapes, sizes and structural rigidities than simply throwing a ratchet strap over them. In all the years I’ve been driving stuff like this around, I’ve never had anything come close to falling off a trailer, and in fact I’ve rarely even had anything shift within the trailer. How can it be true to say that it’s automatically unsafe to not blindly strap every little thing onto a curtainsider? It obviously isn’t.
I don’t think load security is served well by automatically strapping everything in this way. Have a look at the load, strap stuff where it needs it - machinery, IBCs, bundles of steel rods, stuff like that - and drive according to what’s on your trailer and you won’t go wrong. I’ve been doing that for 15 years so far with no issues.
I sometimes drive a chipliner with loose wood chips in, am I breaking the law by now roping it down? 
wheelnutt:
Rhythm Thief:
well wrapped palletised freight is perfectly safe unsecured on a curtainsider trailer…Absolute tosh.
Rhythm Thief:
It must be, else I’d have had stuff strewn all over the motorway every night for the past ten or twelve years …You are overdue to lose a load, give us your reg please so we know to give you a wide berth while you keep pushing your luck.
Would I be correct in assuming that you are fairly new at truck driving? If so, you might find it beneficial to do a little more listening and a bit less lecturing to people who have been safely delivering unstrapped loads in curtainsiders since you were in nappies.
Harry Monk:
wheelnutt:
Rhythm Thief:
well wrapped palletised freight is perfectly safe unsecured on a curtainsider trailer…Absolute tosh.
Rhythm Thief:
It must be, else I’d have had stuff strewn all over the motorway every night for the past ten or twelve years …You are overdue to lose a load, give us your reg please so we know to give you a wide berth while you keep pushing your luck.
Would I be correct in assuming that you are fairly new at truck driving? If so, you might find it beneficial to do a little more listening and a bit less lecturing to people who have been safely delivering unstrapped loads in curtainsiders since you were in nappies.
+1
There has been some ‘absolute tosh’ spouted on this thread and not by the likes of Harry Monk.
The appropriate restraint for the appropriate load, all tensioned curtains have some load restraining capabilities.
no need for the overregulation of load security . it’s so simple , load it properly , stop driving like a ■■■■ . you are supposed to be professional drivers not smokey and the bandit . a little forethought and care beats any amount of straps .
Harry Monk, Rhythm Thief, Rigsby, Matamoros & a few more, spot on.
Wheelnutt, Saaamon, you’ve fell for this trucking version of PC ■■■■■■■■■.
Years before Gerald Broadbent designed trailers, His ERF LV drivers used to use a tarpaulin to wrap loads like your mum wrapped up your sandwiches for school, it kept everything inside the bread. She probably tied the parcel up with ribbon or string, we used sisal or baler twine, also known as hairy willie band in Yorkshire.
This practice carried on for years to secure everything from wet fish, fruit, vegetables, potatoes, steel and timber. There was much less carnage on the roads with insecure loads and overturned vehicles. And then someone decided that tarpaulins were not part of the securement process and ropes could not be used as they could not be tested.
Not sure how they tested these 
About 28 years ago I worked for a very small company, (only 3 trucks) out of Penzance. We ran flat decks carrying broccoli & cabbage in wooden crates that we roped & sheeted on the deck, handballed on & off.
Then came tautliners but we handballed them onto pallets, laid out on the deck to be forklifted off.
When the crates got loaded, they were jammed in front to back & almost up to the roof so when we got to the market we couldn’t get them out without damaging them & had no chance of forking them off.
So after the first season of this, the boss had to pay a lot of money for damages.
We could have dropped them down a row & had 5 instead of 6 on a row but he would have lost about 200 quid a run so he designed a corner post at the back end that would pivot open about 18", with the door, like the middle posts, so once that first pallet came out, there was no problem with the rest of them.
I don’t know if he made any money from that idea or if Boalloy made any for anybody else but a simple brilliant idea.
For the attention of the dinosaurs who keep bleating about we’ve always done it like this! The weight will hold it! In my day yadda yadda yadda!!
If Sally Traffic didn’t have to keep telling the all of the UK where trucks have shed their loads, causing untold frustration and misery for thousands of commuters, then maybe you could have been left to do your profession without being babysat (eg CPC)
You can’t even use toilets in a MSA as you prefer the vehicle park, so you can’t blame the authority’s treating you like children can you 
chester:
For the attention of the dinosaurs who keep bleating about we’ve always done it like this! The weight will hold it! In my day yadda yadda yadda!!If Sally Traffic didn’t have to keep telling the all of the UK where trucks have shed their loads, causing untold frustration and misery for thousands of commuters, then maybe you could have been left to do your profession without being babysat (eg CPC)
You can’t even use toilets in a MSA as you prefer the vehicle park, so you can’t blame the authority’s treating you like children can you
It’s more that some people have a better sense of genuine risk assessment and feel that the risks from well wrapped standard palletised loads breaking through multiple runs of the same material used in car seat belts is vanishingly small compared to the risks to drivers standing in busy goods yards unnecessarily throwing 75 tons of ratchet strap restraint, which will just work loose anyway, over some bog rolls.
This is the trouble with people that like to blather on about the importance of health and safety, they tend to be the sort of thickos that don’t have the foresight to see the additional risks they themselves are causing or do see them but certainly aren’t going to throw away a good opportunity to tell other people what to do with some sanctimonious finger wagging.
rigsby:
no need for the overregulation of load security . it’s so simple , load it properly , stop driving like a ■■■■ . you are supposed to be professional drivers not smokey and the bandit . a little forethought and care beats any amount of straps .
For anyone considering reading the rest of the thread, don’t bother. These two lines are all that you need.
A fascinating read this. As usual overloaded with pointless and irrelevant information, but thems the rules… Obey or pay.
hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr662.pdf
Curtain sider trailer.
Curtain sider trailers are essentially flatbed trailers with a weather-protection structure mounted on the bed of the trailer. They allow goods to be transported and protected from the weather, as well as providing the advantages of easy access to the sides of the trailer for loading and unloading as would be found on a flatbed trailer.
Generally the weather protection structure is not rated for load restraint and should not be used to secure load restraint equipment, although trailers with a reinforced and rated superstructure are allowed for in European Standards.
The Road Traffic Act 1991 states:
A person is also guilty of using a vehicle in a dangerous condition if he uses, or causes or permits another to use a motor vehicle or trailer on a road when the purpose for which it is used or the weight position or distribution of its loads, or the manner in which it is secured is such that the use of the motor vehicle or trailer involves a danger of injury to any person.
The maximum penalty for this offence if committed in respect of a goods vehicle is a £5000 fine, plus 3 penalty points and disqualification
truckingtopics.co.uk/loadingpallettra.html
Load security guidance issued for pallet networks
By Richard Simpson 23
New guidelines on load restraint in double-deck trailers have been released by the Association of Pallet Networks (APN) and the Road Haulage Association (RHA) after a meeting of the APN’s health and safety group on August 17. The guidelines have currently not been endorsed by VOSA or the Health and Safety Executive.Concerns have been raised over the best means of securing the wide variety of palletized goods carried by the pallet networks, particularly on trunking runs to and from the network hubs, where double-deck curtainside trailers are standard equipment. Operators are also concerned that some consignors under economic pressure may be understating the weights of pallets.
The APN and RHA have asked operators to:
uniquechallengesofpalletwork
Ensure all trailers are fitted with adequate side/centre load restraining straps.
Equip trailers with 13 — 16 pairs of straps, and these should be used at all times.
Issue drivers with an adequate number of restraining straps. These should be used to secure heavy items on the trailer’s lower deck or neck.
Consider installing side netting and other load restraining systems.
Fill gaps between the load and the headboard, between load items, or between the load and the rear doors with dunnage: spare pallets for example. These items themselves will need to be secured as appropriate.
Operators should carry out a generic risk assessment with drivers on each type of trailer used, and drivers should be regularly briefed on load security.
Pallet hubs are being asked to monitor strapping on trailers and advise members where loads are not being adequately restrained.
“Everyone has a role and a responsibility,” the APN said.
The APN emphasizes that this is basic interim guidance, and that a final Good Practice Document will be produced and forwarded to VOSA and the HSE after being circulated to members for comment
So are the APN doing anything ?
chester:
For the attention of the dinosaurs who keep bleating about we’ve always done it like this! The weight will hold it! In my day yadda yadda yadda!!If Sally Traffic didn’t have to keep telling the all of the UK where trucks have shed their loads, causing untold frustration and misery for thousands of commuters, then maybe you could have been left to do your profession without being babysat (eg CPC)
You can’t even use toilets in a MSA as you prefer the vehicle park, so you can’t blame the authority’s treating you like children can you
Sally is telling you about the new boys, of which I’m sure your one, not the oldies that drive according to their load.
Dieseldog66:
chester:
For the attention of the dinosaurs who keep bleating about we’ve always done it like this! The weight will hold it! In my day yadda yadda yadda!!If Sally Traffic didn’t have to keep telling the all of the UK where trucks have shed their loads, causing untold frustration and misery for thousands of commuters, then maybe you could have been left to do your profession without being babysat (eg CPC)
You can’t even use toilets in a MSA as you prefer the vehicle park, so you can’t blame the authority’s treating you like children can you
Sally is telling you about the new boys, of which I’m sure your one, not the oldies that drive according to their load.
^^^^^THIS!^^^^^