The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has released three new loading guides for the industry, covering side curtains, side gates and headboards.
The regulator explained, 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.
The new loading guides developed by the NHVR are designed to assist industry in complying with the HVNL loading and loading performance standards.
These one-pagers highlight common loading mistakes and best practice methods for securing a load. Each of the load restraint guides provides a case study, which is used as an example of what can happen with an insufficiently restrained load.
For example, in the side curtains guide, a case study points to a truck that was intercepted because of a bulge in the curtain on the rear of the passenger side. The driver said it was ok when he left the depot and there was no issue when he walked around the truck.
When the driver opened the rear doors, it was that a small industrial machine had broken its restraints and was leaning on the unrated gate and unrated curtain. The NHVR says this could have been avoided by restraining the load properly inside the curtain as if the curtain was not even there. The gates could have also been braced to add some strength.
NHVR says the new 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 three new loading guides aim to promote safety through good load restraint practices to help industry comply with loading requirements.
These loading guides can be accessed here.