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TRL looks for safest way to carry timber
Page 10
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I by Oily Sheppard
imber hauliers are facing weeping changes In the way )ads are carried following asearch to find out if one ddely used method is safe.
The tests, by the Transport esearch Laboratory, were pmmissioned following a spate f accidents where loads of timer were lost, including one inciant two years ago in which an deny couple died. Ever since, ere have been calls to ban toss-loading, in which shorter its of timber are piled at rightlies to the road on flatbeds,
Although TRL Is still analysing the resutts, initial indications are that cross-loading is unsafe. As a result the Department of Transport (DoT) says its new code of practice on the safety of vehicle loads, which is due out in September, is unlikely to recommend cross-loading of timber unless there are barriers down each side of the trailer.
At present, nylon web strapping is used to hold the timber in place—hauliers estimate the cost of adding barriers at up to £5,000 a trailer, Alasdair Ferguson. MD of Scottish-based timber haulier Ferguson Transport, is a member of the steering group which decided how the trials should be conducted. He says: "The feedback at the outset was that there would be changes of a kind. it was clearly flagged up that some of the loads moved or were shed as part of the trials. We just need to get the proper results."
Richard Scott, chairman of the Roundwood Haulage Working Party, expects some hauliers who only carry unprocessed timber as backloads to withdraw from the sector altogether. But he adds: "I think everybody including hauliers, drivers and the people in the processing plants understand that if the findings show that one system cannot be recommended then it's in everyone's interest to find a better one."
The TRL is due to submit its findings to the Health & Safety Executive next month.