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Timber haulier calls for a ban on cross-loading

12th July 2001, Page 12
12th July 2001
Page 12
Page 12, 12th July 2001 — Timber haulier calls for a ban on cross-loading
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

• A former timber haulier is calling for a ban on one of the most commonly used methods of hauling logs. Owner-driver Malcolm Millard believes that cross-loaded logs which are placed at right-angles to the road on flatbeds can never be strapped tightly enough to prevent the load being shed accidentally. He wants to see tippers used instead.

Existing guidelines drawn up by the Roundwood Haulage Working Party (RHWP) are undergoing rigorous tests following a series of accidents including one in which an elderly couple died ( CM24-30 May).

Millard, based near Southampton, says hE used tippers to haul pit props for the mining industry in the 1960s and 70s. "When cross-loading on a 40ft trailer you can't get enough pressure to stop smaller logs working their way out," he warns. "I've had to ring motorway police three times in the past five years to stop vehicles on the M4 where timber was corning off The industry has to ask itself whether it wants so many people killed each year or whether it wants to put its house in order."

However, Alistair Baxter, MD of Midlothian-based James Baxter 84 Sons, and the haulier representative on the RHWP, describes the idea as "an impossibility".

Baxter points out that the processing factories need to transfer the wood straight from the vehicle to conveyors, concluding: "If you attempted to unload a Tipper with a grabber you would not be able to see what was being grabbed."


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