Safe loading in the spotlight
Training accreditation body RTITB offers advice to help fleets ensure safety during loading operations
Loading vehicles is something your employees might do daily, but with time pressures and demanding schedules, are your loading operations being carried out safely?
Whatever the size of the load being transported, it is susceptible to a number of forces throughout the journey.
To properly restrain the load, drivers should understand and appreciate how those forces affect stability and movement. It is always important for drivers to consider the basic principles behind load shift and safe loading, which don’t just apply to commercial vehicles.
“Consider placing groceries in the boot of the car,” says Laura Nelson, managing director for RTITB.
“It may sound like an odd comparison but, like LGV operations, it involves packing and loading goods to transport them from A to B. But the risk is not just a few bottles rolling around the boot of a car; the consequences of not loading an LGV correctly can be really serious.”
So whether it’s metal pipes, timber, clothing, reinforced concrete, FIBCs/bulk powder, bricks, stone, concrete, roll cages, scrap, bagged aggregate, plant machinery, skips, bulk material, reels, heavy palletised goods, kegs or barrels, load safety is critical. And are they considered Dangerous Goods?
What are the principles of load safety?
Some of the key points for drivers to think about are what the load is, how it was stored, and put on the vehicle, and how it is distributed and secured. There are five principles of load safety:
- Choose the right vehicle
2. Load the vehicle correctly
3. Choose the right securing method
4. Use sufficient load restraints
5. Communication is keyWhat are the consequences of poor load safety standards?
“There is the obvious risk of costly damage caused to the load,” says Laura. “But there is also a risk of damage to the vehicle, and the more extreme consequences may lead to job losses, fines, imprisonment, injury and even death.”
There can be some serious impacts on a business too, including delivery delays, damage to the company reputation, and additional financial costs incurred, for vehicle repairs, insurance payments, liability, and fines, to name a few.
The impact a lost load can have on the road network can also be hugely disruptive, causing traffic delays, road damage and requiring clean-up operations.
Understanding the forces that affect a load
LGV drivers don’t require a physics degree, but they should understand the basic principles behind the forces that affect a load, which include inertia, centrifugal force, and friction. This can help them to understand why loads move or shift in transit if they are not secured properly and remind them why it is important to load safely.
For example, an unsecured item in a vehicle will continue in the direction of travel when that vehicle slows or stops if it is not secured, due to inertia. When a vehicle turns a corner, an unsecured load continues in a straight line, thanks to the centrifugal force. Friction can be positive or negative when loading a vehicle. It can be used to supplement load restraint systems, but it often gets over relied upon and is misunderstood. It can also damage lashings and loads.
Load safety is important at every stage
“Like packing your groceries, load safety should be considered at every stage of the transportation process,” says Laura. This includes when the order picker is stacking the pallet or loading the roll cage, when the route planner is configuring the vehicle bed footprint, and when the lift truck operator is loading the vehicle.
“Though it may seem more time-consuming, safe loading is an operational investment that could end up saving time and money, but most importantly, it heightens safety,” Laura adds.
If you and your LGV drivers need to learn more about the principles of safe loading, it is covered in a Driver CPC module titled ‘Preventing Vehicle Loading Incidents’, which is available to members of the RTITB Driver CPC Consortium.
Additional topics in the module include load safety regulations, load distribution and load securing systems such us how to secure loads like kegs and barrels or coil and reels.
Readers can sign up to the RTITB Driver CPC Consortium for access to a range of Driver CPC training materials, and support that could save businesses time and money. A free 30-day trial is available.
