urban859:
I see no internal straps not a load for me thank you
If you take the 2 sliding roof supports out on one side of that trailer the roof almost collapses. I wouldn’t like to secure that kind of weight from the roof with any straps as I don’t think it would hold anyway 
!!!
Ok a few points / questions .
1- the first picture - can anyone here tell the weight of the pallets or the contents by looking at them - Not one of you - so nobody has any idea what weights are involved . There is only one place to sort that out - an axle weighbridge - everything else is rumour and speculation .Driver guesstimates and planner estimates
2- a bundle of rope or a box of ratchet straps will secure that load . So now the question is - Was the driver given access to rope or ratchet straps ? If not why not - with out straps , ratchets , rope or the wooden boards that load should not leave the yard .
3- the pics of the unit with the spraywing ripped off . Was this due to the suppossed weight involved or due to the driver not waiting until the air suspension leveled out . Did he drop the air to get under and forget to lift it / level it off before he moved . I’m sorry but the picture tell us nothing .
The only way to know would be to strap, ratchet, rope ,board it all up get hooked into it and get it to a weigh bridge / axle bridge . Only when you know the real weights involved can you make a decision on whether to "crack on " or back to the yard and request a reload/ remove weight etc.
beefy4605:
Ok a few points / questions .
1- the first picture - can anyone here tell the weight of the pallets or the contents by looking at them - Not one of you - so nobody has any idea what weights are involved . There is only one place to sort that out - an axle weighbridge - everything else is rumour and speculation .Driver guesstimates and planner estimates
The only way to know would be to strap, ratchet, rope ,board it all up get hooked into it and get it to a weigh bridge / axle bridge . Only when you know the real weights involved can you make a decision on whether to "crack on " or back to the yard and request a reload/ remove weight etc.
It doesn’t take a weighbridge or a genius to judge that dodgy looking load on the balance of probabilities and then to start asking questions like who’s zb idea was it to put a load more suited to an LHV on an ordinary trailer. 
As for strapping/roping that lot with the way it’s stacked and the height good luck I’d walk away from the job and you could have it although admittedly easier said than done in the case of having to explain all that to the dole office.
Which is why in the case of employed drivers ‘all’ responsibility should be removed and placed with the O licence holder.In which case permitting and causing should override the road traffic act in the case of dangerous driving owing to dodgy loads.Simply because an employed driver has no motive whereas the operator has.I think there’d be some big changes in that case concerning drivers not being pressured into doing something which they wouldn’t choose to do.
I don’t think VOSA allows any system that would effectively mean load it first as much as you want and then take it to a weighbridge before asking questions later.
Either the tractor unit’s suspension isn’t at the correct setting or the thing is massively overweight on the kingpin. I wouldn’t take it through the gate. Full stop, no argument.
Carryfast:
It doesn’t take a weighbridge or a genius to judge that dodgy looking load on the balance of probabilities and then to start asking questions like who’s zb idea was it to put a load more suited to an LHV on an ordinary trailer.Which is why in the case of employed drivers ‘all’ responsibility should be removed and placed with the O licence holder.In which case permitting and causing should override the road traffic act in the case of dangerous driving owing to dodgy loads.Simply because an employed driver has no motive whereas the operator has.I think there’d be some big changes in that case concerning drivers not being pressured into doing something which they wouldn’t choose to do.
Exactly ,roping those “fragile” whatever they are will cause damage ,the boxes on the bottom pallets have collapsed so are unstable before you even move and (i may be wrong here) assuming the tyres are at the correct pressure they also look a little overloaded
We did up to 12 groupage trailers a day from Redditch to Ireland. (maybe 3 these days). Loading groupage is an art - I have sat in the yard and watched them do it and you can bet that it is the steel on the floor not the teddy bears.
On the pallet system the customers would estimate the weights of the pallets. Most would be wildly out in both directions. Under 500kg is a half pallet so many would be marked up as 450kg whether they weighed 100 or 1000. We had a FLT with a weigher on it so the loader would be able to make a proper judgement - he also knew pretty well what was on the pallets and how well they were likely to be packed. A lot of pallets were marked “Do Not Double Stack.” Nothing over half a tonne on the top deck either.
Some of the groupage loads may well have looked pretty dodgy but the weights were usually (errors and omissions excepted) well within the limit, and there was always a good mix of heavy and light stuff to balance the loads.
y’know, i havent done a days work as a professional driver in my life.
i took a look at that 1st pic as said ■■■■ that, i wouldnt drive that until a it had been secured properly, and b stuck it on a weigh bridge.
if I can see its overloaded(and insecure…) how can any so called pro miss it.?
qwakers:
y’know, i havent done a days work as a professional driver in my life.i took a look at that 1st pic as said [zb] that, i wouldnt drive that until a it had been secured properly, and b stuck it on a weigh bridge.
if I can see its overloaded(and insecure…) how can any so called pro miss it.?
To be honest it’s not as simple as that ,i agree that it looks overloaded but that may not be the case .Weight distribution is just as important if not more than remaining within the GVW .For example if i take a 7.5t truck out with 2.5 t over the rear axle i am under my GVW but the rear axle is overloaded ,this will cause the front end to lift and result in less traction around corners .With this example i would say that the front is overweight on the pin but i could be wildly wrong just by looking .Sometimes common sense must prevail ,clearly the boxes(full of batteries) are sized to be moved manually so it is unlikely they would be over about 25kilos each,we also know that a cubic meter(1000ltr) of water weighs almost a ton (usefull when guessing liquid weights) so a rough guesstimate of total weight can be made by counting boxes the problem comes when you don’t know what is on the rest of the load like the part that is security wrapped and marked fragile .At the end of the day axle scales are a must and given the relative cost of them against heavy fines i know what i would buy
First 3 stacks from the headboard - get 6 pallets turn them upside down and place one on top of each stack (2 across the trailer ) then ratchet strap them down . Because your spreading the weight with the pallet you can get enough pressure on to stop them flapping about . 4’th row is secured with the post and if there is another post on the far side to match then its good to go .
Rows 5+6 are the ones with the "Contains Glass " pallets . I can’t see a “Fragile” sticker so strap it ,rope it but use plenty of straps or rope - spread the pressure - less chance of damage .
Next stop - axle bridge or a weighbridge to work out weights . If your paperwork says your under 44 ton then you have no reason to doubt it but if on hooking up and leaving the yard you suspect otherwise head straight to the nearest available “bridge” and get an accurate weight.
if your legal - crack on
if your not legal - ring the yard and tell them - it’s not your problem any more .
If all you have done is drive to the nearest available weighbridge you will have a defense against any court case.
The words nearest and available are the important words here.
No, you’d be a mug to take that with no load restraint in place, I would turn that down without a second look
I wouldn’t want to drive it down the road to a public weighbridge.
As a rule of thumb, a blank box not inspected up close gets called a round tonne in weight. What’s on the top deck often does not get examined closely, so you are effectively trusting the loaders not to bugger about putting the dense stuff on top. There’s probably a joke about heads on shoulders here as well. 
Glossy magazines, nuts & bolts, a cubic metre of tinned food are all things you don’t want to get on the top deck, but alas it happens. I’ve even seen a Forks driver remove a large pallet of what was clearly tinned food to make space for a pallet of scotch, and then calmly slot it in on the top deck, because it had no where else to go - apart from the next service run of course. 
Looking at the full picture on page 2, the first 11 pallets on the front are secure, they are butted up well and reasonably tidy. I would want boards in that first bay and if the boss has bought it with an upright missing and no boards then the trailer isn’t fit for purpose. For £100 it could be sorted. If the support post is missing it makes it unsuitable for using sky hooks and straps from the fitted centre rail.
You can see on the angle of the front support post that it is not supporting the roof or therefore the curtain, but I wouldn’t immediately judge the load as being overweigt on a 3+3 outfit. However the fact that the trailer was loaded while the engine was off, maybe with a small airleak then it can look overloaded, if the driver has ripped off a centre mud wing while turning in the yard, it seems as though he either hasn’t reset the suspension or let the air build up. You have to remember that this identical lorry can be loaded up to 50tonnes just across the North Sea. In France they would run that with 13tonnes on a single drive axle and in both countries it would be totally legal and safe.
When you next go to Prato John or Munich and you are loading Groupage, you will get slightly miffed when it gets to Friday 22.30 and you haven’t had a proper meal. Guiseppe or Fritz wanders over and says “We are just waiting for one last item, the paperwork is ready and the driver will be here before midnight”
Two good lessons there, you will learn to look after yourself dietwise before you go to load the groupage and you will learn to relax, because you aint going nowhere until that last awkward piece of pipework arrives with the urgent machine and is placed wherever it will fit on that trailer.
You now have 19 hours to make the ferry. I hoped you have saved a reduced rest period this week
Wheel Nut:
Looking at the full picture on page 2, the first 11 pallets on the front are secure, they are butted up well and reasonably tidy. I would want boards in that first bay and if the boss has bought it with an upright missing and no boards then the trailer isn’t fit for purpose. For £100 it could be sorted. If the support post is missing it makes it unsuitable for using sky hooks and straps from the fitted centre rail.
Malc, I can’t believe nobody’s noticed that the trailer isn’t meant to have side boards!! It looks like a schmitz, prob a 4,5m high standard curtainsider with two roof supports a side, Schmits ‘uprights’ often have the slots for sideboards but if you look at the side on pic’s the headboard doesn’t have the sockets for boards!!
PS, I’ve personally driven groupage loads much worse looking than that from Ferry Freighting Manchester to North, South, East & Western Spain litterally dozens of times without misshap. I’d run with it.
Ross.
bigr250:
Malc, I can’t believe nobody’s noticed that the trailer isn’t meant to have side boards!! It looks like a schmitz, prob a 4,5m high standard curtainsider with two roof supports a side, Schmits ‘uprights’ often have the slots for sideboards but if you look at the side on pic’s the headboard doesn’t have the sockets for boards!!Ross.
Well spotted Ross, it is a Schmitz trailer and is 4.4m high. I never even noticed that the headboard has no slots for boards and yet the sliding roof supports do ! Maybe they are not the original supports or maybe they are just a standard use on the schmitz trailers (I couldn’t tell you on that score). All I can tell you is that if you take both supports out at the same time the roof bends so badly that you think it’s going to collapse altogether !
Kerbdog:
bigr250:
Malc, I can’t believe nobody’s noticed that the trailer isn’t meant to have side boards!! It looks like a schmitz, prob a 4,5m high standard curtainsider with two roof supports a side, Schmits ‘uprights’ often have the slots for sideboards but if you look at the side on pic’s the headboard doesn’t have the sockets for boards!!Ross.
Well spotted Ross, it is a Schmitz trailer and is 4.4m high. I never even noticed that the headboard has no slots for boards and yet the sliding roof supports do ! Maybe they are not the original supports or maybe they are just a standard use on the schmitz trailers (I couldn’t tell you on that score). All I can tell you is that if you take both supports out at the same time the roof bends so badly that you think it’s going to collapse altogether !
Schmitz do seem to use those slotted pillars whether there are slots on the h/b or not, pita when the curtains snag & rip on them.
Kerbdog:
All I can tell you is that if you take both supports out at the same time the roof bends so badly that you think it’s going to collapse altogether !
Take all 4 out & you’ll struggle to get any of them back in as the roof droops so much!! Schmitz surtainsiders are flexible!!!
Ross.
Kerbdog:
Well, it turns out that them pallets on the front are batteries for ASDA (your standard smart price batteries). There is actually 18 tonne in the first 6 pallet spaces there. The back 10 pallets (what you can’t see) weigh a little over a tonne each and were for the first delivery so would come off through the back doors on a loading bay and then you would travel onward. As it turned out the total weight of the trailer was estimated by the driver to be 52/53 tonne. Overloading in this company is regular occurance along with a few other anomalies that get a blind eye turned to.Anyway the driver got sacked yesterday for taking a trailer out to do a collection 10 miles away that had been VOR’d as it needed a top marker light bulb replacing. This place where I am push the drivers a lot to get the work done, there were no other empty trailers in the yard and nobody is in the office on the night shift what he was working so he decided to take the trailer. He had apparantly had the trailer the night before. He was pulled into the office after being allowed to do his full next shift and he said that they told him that he had broke the law, if vosa had have pulled him then theyd have thrown the book at the company and it’s op’s license (how they’d have known that it was VOR’d is beyond me. VOSA would probably have picked up on the bulb that was out). Do you think he has been unfairly treated and do you think that this is a bit of double standards.
So where in the testers manual does it mention top marker lights?Or are we going to hear that old gem “if a lights fitted it has to work” again.
Section 63 Lamps.
cav551:
Section 63 Lamps.
And?Where does it mention top outline markers or that if a lamp is fitted it has to work.
Near side foglights dont have to work,reverse lights dont have to work,6 legger tractor unit side markers dont have to work,light clusters with 2 bulbs,only 1 (50%) has to work.
So your point? Rigids dont need top markers,bulkers dont need top markers where does it say trailers need top markers.
Dont see many containers with marker lights either.
2013 Consolidated on line edition pdf file page 182 “End outline marker lamps trailers post 1/10/1990”
page 185 “Front end outline marker lamp as high as possible with regard to the lateral position and the use for which the vehicle is constructed … white”
page 186 “Rear end outline marker lamp… as above … red”
page 187 reasons for failure and method of inspection
Categorisation of defects Apr 2012 part 1 PSV HGV agricultural vehicles on line edition page 116 “Obligatory end outline marker lamps missing/insecure/obscured /inoperative/incorrectly positioned”