Not at all, I tell not a lie
Wheel Nut:
raymundo:
I used to do cartons of wellington boots out of Felixstowe and they went on a flatbed Bedford TK. Roping and sheeting was a nightmare.And believe it or not but they went to Bootle.
Your pulling our leg…
I liked it even if it went whoooooooooosh to others. 
I can remember being loaded in frog with steel tubing for shock absorbers,they where in bundles and where nearly half the length of the 44foot trl i was pulling they got craned in by overhead crane,(sliding roof)
all i could do is strap em,and fill the gap from the bundles nearest the bulkhead with pallets and wood, i must of stopped 3-4 times to check and re-tighten the straps, saw one of the regulars at the place before i left,they had wooden frames bolted to the floor they where a half circle shape so that the tubes wouldn’t spread outwards, a lot safer than the only way i was able to secure them,apart from refusing the load,my point being sometimes is isn’t possible to secure a load properly, if you are not given the correct tools, by the company you are employed by or ar collecting from/delivering to, to just penalise the driver as an easy way of generating revenue is not good
The missus took me to the flicks last night to see a newish film with Liam Neeson called Unknown (don’t bother all in all, especially if it’s £8.10 each like our local Cineworld 
)
However, the whole thing starts going wrong when a single spanset holding a fridge/freezer on the back of a puddlejumper snaps in Berlin - almost leads to a major world disaster, so maybe the BAG are being careful
I collected a load last week that needed to be strapped to secure it. Unfortunately the load containers were unsuitable to be strapped. The company where I loaded supplied me with three empty pallets per pair of loaded pallets to help in securing my load. One pallet placed upside down on top of each loaded pallet and another one on top of these in the middle, to get some downwards leverage as I tightened up my straps.
They supplied these pallets with-out the slightest hesitation and free of charge.
I’m the driver. That load is my responsibility out on the road. If that load can’t be secured to my satisfaction before I get on the road, it doesn’t go.
My boss won’t be happy if I make that decision, but he’ll accept it. He may then speak to the company to try and get them to load it in such a way to make it possible to secure the load properly. If they can comply, I’ll take the load. If not, I’ll have to wait until something else comes available.
jimti:
limeyphil:
ask your colleague if he would have taken the same load, without securing it on a flatbed?he probably wouldn’t for the same reason a tanker driver wouldn’t take his load in a curtain sider!
as the load wasn’t on a flat bed the point is irrelevantThere are plenty of loads that can travel perfectly safely in a curtain sider without any other form of restraint but are not suitable for flatbeds.
We used to load boxes of shoes (around 20,000 at a time) I would never consider taking them on a flatbed, but happily traveled 1,000s of miles across Europe with them unrestrained in my curtain sider, would you have strapped them down?
probably not used straps. but i would have secured them.
i prefer rope, unless it’s machinery.
limeyphil:
jimti:
limeyphil:
ask your colleague if he would have taken the same load, without securing it on a flatbed?he probably wouldn’t for the same reason a tanker driver wouldn’t take his load in a curtain sider!
as the load wasn’t on a flat bed the point is irrelevantThere are plenty of loads that can travel perfectly safely in a curtain sider without any other form of restraint but are not suitable for flatbeds.
We used to load boxes of shoes (around 20,000 at a time) I would never consider taking them on a flatbed, but happily traveled 1,000s of miles across Europe with them unrestrained in my curtain sider, would you have strapped them down?
probably not used straps. but i would have secured them.
i prefer rope, unless it’s machinery.
how on earth would you rope 20,000 boxes in a curtain sider? 
If you undid the siides they would probably move and then you would never get the curtains shut again 
jimti:
how on earth would you rope 20,000 boxes in a curtain sider?
If you undid the siides they would probably move and then you would never get the curtains shut again
don’t forget jimti, it all happens in a parallel universe with limeyphil 
TheBear:
But is this option open to non Germans?? Many many years ago, I got pulled out of a line of traffic going through roadworks and was given a 300 Dm fine for speeding through the roadworks!!! When I pointed out that I would have been driving over the top of everyone else if I had been speeding it had no effect and I was arrested and taken to the nearest motorway police station. I was then put in a cell as I flatly refused to pay the fine and, for the one and only time in my life, lost my temper with them throwing the keys at them. This was after, despite my tacho showing 72 kph in a 70 limit, they insisted I was doing 92 kph!!
Four hours later, they obviously got fed up of me. I had used my age old trick on going to sleep but on my back. This had the effect that no one in the station got any peace as I can snore for the World when on my back
nice one Austin I can imagine they were well impressed
welshboyinspain:
browncow, the letter probably said “the driver is a ■■■■■■” in german for all i knew
how appropriate that would have been in your case
This sort of nonsense makes me glad Im now longer driving in Europe. On my last trip to Switzerland in 2009 before emigrating to Canada I get pulled in to the zollhof on the Weil am Rhein border for an inspection by Swiss customs. I was carrying about 4 million euro’s worth of pharmaceuticals in drums that were doubled up almost to the roof and weighed practically nothing, I had all my aliminium boards down the side of the trailer and two restraining bars at the rear end…exactly how thousands of our previous loads had gone there. They told me I had to strap the whole lot down and after about two hours of arguments and such like between customs and the owner of the goods who didnt want the drums getting damaged by strapping them down (grounds for the whole lot being rejected in Basel) I was forced to put 11 span sets over the top of the trailer as they insisted that this increased load safety, despite the fact the straps where doing nothing other than pulling the frame work of the trailer tighter together and not even touching the load in the slightest. So after 3 hours of messing around I could then proceed the last 30km in to Switzerland. Not long after that the company started sending everything down there in fridges to avoid all the needless agro. As for Germany, every last piece of enjoyment of driving there has been erased by their endless drive to regulate everything to within an inch of its life and Belgium is no better these days with their over taking bans during the day and when its raining. No thanks, I’ll stick with driving in North America.
Simon:
I collected a load last week that needed to be strapped to secure it. Unfortunately the load containers were unsuitable to be strapped. The company where I loaded supplied me with three empty pallets per pair of loaded pallets to help in securing my load. One pallet placed upside down on top of each loaded pallet and another one on top of these in the middle, to get some downwards leverage as I tightened up my straps.
They supplied these pallets with-out the slightest hesitation and free of charge.I’m the driver. That load is my responsibility out on the road. If that load can’t be secured to my satisfaction before I get on the road, it doesn’t go.
My boss won’t be happy if I make that decision, but he’ll accept it. He may then speak to the company to try and get them to load it in such a way to make it possible to secure the load properly. If they can comply, I’ll take the load. If not, I’ll have to wait until something else comes available.
My boss is the same Simon,as you say,there are times when he may not be the happiest but he knows it’s mine (& to a lesser degree his own responsibility) & he relies on my & my colleagues own proffesional experience to ensure the jobs done properly. We also regularily load buckets of chicken manure stacked 6 high on the pallets & shrunk wrapped,but the wrap is never tight enough & there are places where the adjacent buckets don’t touch. The customer,same as yours will always give us as many blues as we need to secure them properly,usually the way you quoted,3 on top of every 2 pallets. Don’t forget Vosa are checking load security more & more too these days. Am regularily seeing drivers re-strapping loads in Vosa checkpoints lately.
Simon:
I collected a load last week that needed to be strapped to secure it. Unfortunately the load containers were unsuitable to be strapped. The company where I loaded supplied me with three empty pallets per pair of loaded pallets to help in securing my load. One pallet placed upside down on top of each loaded pallet and another one on top of these in the middle, to get some downwards leverage as I tightened up my straps.
They supplied these pallets with-out the slightest hesitation and free of charge.I’m the driver. That load is my responsibility out on the road. If that load can’t be secured to my satisfaction before I get on the road, it doesn’t go.
My boss won’t be happy if I make that decision, but he’ll accept it. He may then speak to the company to try and get them to load it in such a way to make it possible to secure the load properly. If they can comply, I’ll take the load. If not, I’ll have to wait until something else comes available.
There are more ways of skinning cats or securing loads for that matter. In the day every driver worth his peanuts carried a box of nails, a hammer and a prybar, chocks or dunnage were easy to find and oddball or awkward loads could be secured with pallets and railway sleepers. I have seen none of these mentioned in the driver CPC trolley
Wheel Nut:
Simon:
I collected a load last week that needed to be strapped to secure it. Unfortunately the load containers were unsuitable to be strapped. The company where I loaded supplied me with three empty pallets per pair of loaded pallets to help in securing my load. One pallet placed upside down on top of each loaded pallet and another one on top of these in the middle, to get some downwards leverage as I tightened up my straps.
They supplied these pallets with-out the slightest hesitation and free of charge.I’m the driver. That load is my responsibility out on the road. If that load can’t be secured to my satisfaction before I get on the road, it doesn’t go.
My boss won’t be happy if I make that decision, but he’ll accept it. He may then speak to the company to try and get them to load it in such a way to make it possible to secure the load properly. If they can comply, I’ll take the load. If not, I’ll have to wait until something else comes available.There are more ways of skinning cats or securing loads for that matter. In the day every driver worth his peanuts carried a box of nails, a hammer and a prybar, chocks or dunnage were easy to find and oddball or awkward loads could be secured with pallets and railway sleepers. I have seen none of these mentioned in the driver CPC trolley
Mine was just one example of how it can be done.
Part of the problem is caused by drivers. The ones who are in to much of a hurry to do the job right, or don’t know how to do the job right, or can’t be bothered to do the job right. For whatever reason, not doing the job they are supposed to.
In Germany they’ve become fed-up with picking up the pieces caused by some of us not doing our job. So they’ve given up on letting common-sense dictate how loads are secured and come up with a set of rules. One of them is that each piece of securing equipment must have its original labels stating its load strength (or whatever its called). As rope doesn’t have any labels on it, its no good.
As for the rest of their rules, I’ve got no idea. I just use common-sense when I’m securing my load and hope that what I consider common-sense complies with their rules.
I’d love to get stopped in a ‘vostapo’ checkpoint to have one of these schoolboys tell me that my load wasn’t secured propperly!!
If I thought it was, I’d ask him to ‘nick’ me for it and argue my case in a court because I think my 23 years driving (without ever losing a load!!) qualifies me to decide on what is required, what qualifies him? 5 GCSE’s and A levels in cookery & social science!! No, I’d definately take the chance and have my ‘day in court’ because I think I’m better qualified in load security than a boy scout!!
Obviously in Germany I’d be polite and do whatever the ‘heel clicker’ asked me to do, cos over there he’s ‘the man’!! 
Ross.
There are more ways of skinning cats or securing loads for that matter. In the day every driver worth his peanuts carried a box of nails, a hammer and a prybar, chocks or dunnage were easy to find and oddball or awkward loads could be secured with pallets and railway sleepers
Im just in the process of reflooring part of my trailer due to an idiot kermit driving his forklift with 3 tonne of conrods on his forks. The cost of one panel is over £256 + an extortionate (spelt wrong i know) delivery charge and I’m replacing 3 panels. At this cost anyone loading me had better not even scratch my floor let alone hammer any nails in it 
Graham
there are some fools driving trucks.
if it can’t be secured, then it dosn’t get loaded.
if people have to ask such stupid questions, then they shouldn’t be in the bloody job.
a tanker is used for a purpose that a curtainsider isn’t used for. and a curtainsider is an alternative to sheeting a flatbed. it isn’t an alternative to securing a load.
the curtains, and the roof keep the load dry, they don’t stop it from falling on the road.
limeyphil:
a tanker is used for a purpose that a curtainsider isn’t used for. and a curtainsider is an alternative to sheeting a flatbed. it isn’t an alternative to securing a load.
the curtains, and the roof keep the load dry, they don’t stop it from falling on the road.
That reads like you’re quoting from the safe loading handbook and I think your totally wrong. I ve loaded groupage hundreds of times with all the usual shapes and sizes of packages, I wouldn’t think of loading them on a flat without ropes and sheets but used to run from Manchester to Spain 40 times a year with nothing securing a single package inside my curtainsider and with NOTHING ever “falling on the road”!!!
It’s all about common sense, the curtains on my Van Hool curtainsider were rated at 6 tonns, WHY??
I’m affraid (as mentioned earlier in this thread) that the Germans have seen some real idiotic loading and have taken the common sense out if it all by making ‘strapping’ a legal requirement. So now we have schoolboy/boyscout coppers who know nothing about load security and have nothing resembling experience or common sense, taking the decision for us and making drivers individually strap 5kg cardboard drums!!!
Ross.
so what’s actually be said, is the germans are fineing for an insecure load, when it isn’t an insecure load?
the way i read it was, someone is complaining because someone was fined for being a ■■■■, and not securing a load, when it should be secured.
and my last comment didn’t come out of a health and safety manual. they are for starting BBQ’s at VOSA checkpoints.
limeyphil:
so what’s actually be said, is the germans are fineing for an insecure load, when it isn’t an insecure load?
the way i read it was, someone is complaining because someone was fined for being a ■■■■, and not securing a load, when it should be secured.
and my last comment didn’t come out of a health and safety manual. they are for starting BBQ’s at VOSA checkpoints.
I’ve just re-read the OP and it was a ‘palletised’ load of food in glass jars, undoubtedly ‘pallet wrapped’ and your calling the driver a “■■■■” for not strapping it!! Again, (from my own experience) I’ve carried all kinds of loads all kinds of places and other than ‘crossing’ the back two pallets, I’ve carried palletised glass jars of various food’s tens of thousands of miles without any of them “falling on the floor”!!!
In fact, the only load moving problem I’ve had in all my years was a load of satsuma’s leaning against the side of a tilt after a ‘force 10’ Caen - Portsmouth crossing in which my truck recieved £6,500 worth of damage from a french fridge parked next to me tipping on it’s side!!! What possible difference would a few straps make to that load of citrus fruit in the back of a Euroliner■■?
Ross.
if the load needs securing, then there are no ifs or buts. you secure it.
if it dosn’t need any, or just a few straps, then fair enough.