Cost of logging will rise if cross-loading is unsah
Page 9
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• by Guy Sheppard Timber hauliers could face a big increase in costs within the next six months if new research confirms that existing standards for load safety are inadequate.
The Department of Transport, the Health & Safety Executive and the Forestry Commission have agreed to commission tests into crossloading, with logs stacked at right angles to the road on flatbeds. If this proves unsafe hauliers will have to invest in specially adapted trailers that are not suitable for carrying other loads.
The industry is struggling to compete with cheaper imported timber, but stricter safety requirements seem inevitable following a spate of accidents in which trucks carrying timber have shed loads.
Richard Scott, chairman of the Roundwood Haulage Working Party which is made up of contractors, growers and processors, expects the tests to be completed eat next year. Any changes to the working party's code of practice would probably be introduced by April.
"We all recognise that if we can't find a satisfactory means of securing these loads the industry will probably have to abandon the practice of transporting cross-loaded timber," he says.
The Department of Trans port's Code of Practice on safety of loads on vehic which was last revised in 198, also due to be updated r year. For the first time it include guidelines for care specialist leads such as gl and timber. Although neit code is legally binding, Forestry Commission is bo to insist that all contracl observe them.
• A police report into an a dent on the AT in South Scotland in which a falling 1 her load killed an elderly col In a passing car has been s to the Procurator Fiscal. He decide if forestry contra( Elliot Henderson of Selkirk Its driver should be prosecu