I sometimes carry soft drinks. Recently I shot a load of them and it was rejected and had to be repacked. On the way I had had one instance of harsh braking when a car cut in front of me but I was chatting to a driver after the incident and he said short, harsh braking is not as likely to shift a load as slowing quickly from speed on an downward incline, and in fact on that same trip I’d come off a motorway slip road that went down to a roundabout and braked much later than usual. Which do you think is more likely to cause a shifted load in general? A short sharp emergency brake, or pressure building over a number of seconds on a longer sweep like a downhill deceleration lane coming to a junction. I’ve always been dead careful with cornering to prevent sideways shifting but hadn’t really thought about forward shifting until this. I once had to emergency brake on one of the few times I carried steel
and heard the bars hit the headboard of the flatbed. I only heard the horror stories about shifting steel afterwards.
All you need is enough force to overcome the inertia of the load however that occurs. I’ve had two in my time. The beer load needed restacking,bit of a pain but not terrible. The treacle and golden syrup was a stickier matter!
Easy answer - sprint along a pavement then slow down gradually before gently touching the lamp post or sprint to within 3 feet of the lamp post and then slow down before hitting it ----- which hurts the most is going to cause the most damage 
Soft drinks…
Loads of ‘free standing’ Coca-Cola were shot on a regular basis when Eddie used to run out of J41. In my opinion the whole load is technically insecure because there is nothing at all to impede it’s forward movement in the event of sharp braking being required. I’ve heard all the faff in the world about if it’s driven right it’s ok. That’s bollox, if you need to stand on them because some jackass has got it wrong right in front of you then it’s coming forward and going to be rejected at the unload point.
Prestons of Potto Knottingley depot drivers used free standing loads to their advantage by deliberately shooting the load forward somewhere on the A1. So instead of going down to Coke’s place in Enfield, tipping loading and all that malarky, all they had to do was a trailer swap at St Neots and go back to Knottingley.
This has been going on for years. Witness the establishment in Barnsley exists only to restack shot loads.
I’ve shot a few loads forward over the years, and all were due to very harsh sudden braking/emergency stops.
harsh braking in most cases…although with soft drinks, and the way theyre wrapped with the thinnest ever cling film, wont help matters…its about time manufacturers started to wrap their goods ready for transport, and drivers refusing to transport them, when their not packaged suitably for road transport.
Every shot load I’ve had has been from an emergency braking, never had one from slowing down on a downward incline, even on the 1 in 6 hills we have near where I live. If that had been a cause then every load I took down Garrowby Hill where you have to brake for the bends at the bottom would’ve been a shot load.
truckyboy:
harsh braking in most cases…although with soft drinks, and the way theyre wrapped with the thinnest ever cling film, wont help matters…its about time manufacturers started to wrap their goods ready for transport, and drivers refusing to transport them, when their not packaged suitably for road transport.
A lot of the time its down to the drivers not securing the load properly, if at all.
It also depends on how they’re stacked on a pallet, I’ve pulled loads of juice bottles and some of them didn’t quite fit on a pallet properly so the 26 pallets would all be butted up together on the bed but in between the juice there was a gap of a good 4 inches and multiply that by 13 and you could see why we had to take it steady with certain size bottles on board.
Your body behaves the same way as your load, but is restrained by the seatbelt (probably). The greater the force your body exerts on the seatbelt (or the other way round, I can’t quite remember. Actually, they’re equal and opposite I think) , the greater the force acting on the load. So, which hurts more: a quick stamp on the brake or a gradual but sustained slowdown?
Remember, the unsecured load will try and carry on at whatever speed it was travelling at even though the trailer it’s sitting on is slowing down. The greater this speed difference, the more likely it is to shift.
A shooting your load thread, mmm inuendo central, waiting for a dipper reply.
Just two things…standing on the brakes and tyre shredding speeds around roundabouts…
Thanks for replies. Consensus seems to be harsh braking and silly cornering then. Caveman that is a great way to put it, that what’s happening to my body is what’s happening to the load. Hadn’t thought of it like that but it’s so obvious now you say it!
Short sharp braking will always have a greater effect. Simple physics, force = mass… I’ll stop there no need to geek out.
Simply put more acceleration equals = more force. More force = more chance to shift. Caveman’s analogy is a good one. Never once in 3 years got speared by scaffolding braking downhill but very nearly did when some git decided to brake test me in Bradford. Scariest thing ever to happen to me on the road. Hearing 4 tone of 21 ft steal tube smash into the headboard behind my seat. Good job it was right outside the site it was going to. Forklift driver had fun getting that unloaded.
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Crawling up hill in traffic can have the same effect, imagine rush hour on the Manchester bound Mottram Hill
E=MC2
What can crawling uphill in traffic do Peirre?
wanderingstar:
What can crawling uphill in traffic do Peirre?
A load can move backwards as well as forward.
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I wondered about that. Do you think there’s any need to strap pop at the back? Coud a pallet in theory tip over and bust the doors open? I can’t see what else the danger is, and I can’t see that actually happening. But in theory we are supposed to strap them.
daftvader:
wanderingstar:
What can crawling uphill in traffic do Peirre?A load can move backwards as well as forward.
How steep would that hill have to be for it to move back ■■