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Tips and tricks to secure your load

Over the coming months, the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) is releasing a suite of loading tips and tricks to help industry better understand the principles of good load restraint.

Under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL), parties in the Chain of Responsibility (CoR) and drivers have an obligation to comply with loading requirements to maintain safety for all road users.

These one-pagers will highlight common loading mistakes and best practice methods for securing a load.

The guides have been designed for parties in the CoR to print out and display in their workplace to increase awareness, or to be placed in loading manuals as a quick reference.

The first guide released was on dunnage, the packing placed under and between parts of the load.

Dunnage is generally made of either hard wood or soft wood timber and is either square or rectangular in cross-section.

Included with the handy tips and dos and don’ts was a case study about a heavy vehicle loaded with two packs of flat sheet steel weighing around five tonne each.

Dunnage was placed on its narrow face underneath and in between the packs of the flat plate steel.

When the driver applied the truck’s brakes when approaching a set of traffic lights, the dunnage rolled over causing a loss of lashing tension and restraint.

“The two packs of flat sheet steel slid forward into the non-rated headboard, bending and breaking the tubular bars. Fortunately for the driver it didn’t contact the vehicle’s cab. 

“However, if the load had shifted through and impacted the cab, the result may have been serious injury or death to the driver.

“This could have been avoided by using square dunnage or by placing the rectangular dunnage on its longer edge.”

When relying on a non-rated headboard as part of the load restraint system, it should be braced with timber pallets/form plywood and chained to the combing rails to increase the strength, said the guide. 

1 Comment

  1. dunage wider edge down load up flat plate steel secure through combing rail or chain locks,,chain and dog when not loading against the head board ,chain across front and corner angeled secured was a common practice bck home NZ,hardly see this done in Aussie.

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