New log handling to replace cross-loads
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• by Guy Sheppard
New methods of hauling timber are to be tested as part of a drive by industry leaders and police to stop loads slipping off the backs of trucks.
The industry may have to scrap cross-loading, where logs are plied across a flatbed, following an accident an the AT in April in which two people were killed (CM6-12 July).
But a meeting of the Round Wood Haulage Working Party in Carlisle last week heard that its code of practice could not be revised until a police investigation into the accident had been completed. And safety measures could also be undermined by the need to compete with cheaper timber haulage from abroad.
Richard Scott, chairman of the working party, says trials will now be conducted with the poke and the Health & Safety Executive to find alternative methods of loading.
One option is to use flatbeds with sockets down the sides where poles can be inserted to help secure cross-loaded tim ber. "It is going to require some investment from hauliers to do this," says Scott, who is also head of logistics for Carlislebased BSW Timber.
But he warns that the UK timber industry is already struggling to compete with products from Scandinavia and Baltic countries, where fuel is cheaper and there is not the same culture of safety.
"The cost of shipping timber from Sweden to Kent is cheaper than hauling it by road from Sterling to Kent,' he concludes.