Road safety involves the participation of multiple agencies and individuals. The fleet operators hauling heavy cargo across the country through the highway networks would obviously form the nucleus of this group. Then the heavy vehicle drivers who ride the vehicles need to take every precaution. The manufacturers of the vehicles with open trailers also have a role to play since they need to design the vehicles with provisions for the load restraints to be fitted and the cargo secured. In all these, the government also steps in. New Zealand Transport Agency has made some amendments to the rules concerning vehicle dimensions and increased the width to allow for the fixing of load restraints. In Australia too, you can procure the different items to secure the heavy logs or other cargo being hauled the manufacturers of the load restraint NSW wide.
The Lumber Industry Benefits the Most
Australia has a flourishing timber industry. A lot of forest wood gets cut and is transported across the country. It is not unusual for one to see the sight of these long open trailer vehicles loaded with timber logs. By their very nature, these logs can roll off while in transit and it causes huge damage to the other vehicles and people on the roads if such a catastrophe were to happen. The irony is, even closed containers meet with accidents or turn topsy-turvy and spill the contents all over. So the need to keep the heavy cargo on trucks intact need not be overstated.
Multiple Ways to Secure the Cargo
The securing of the cargo, of any nature, on the rear of a vehicle is not limited to only one type of load restraint NSW manufacturers offer. The rigid pieces are fitted when the fleet operator would get the vehicles ready for the purpose at the workshop itself. The flexible auto-tensioners are then added to the arrangement. The small device is fitted on the side of the trailer and the hooks to pass the tension tape are also fixed at intervals along the length of the trailer on both sides.
Driver Checks before the Movement
The heavy duty open trailer trucks are driven to the yards from where the logs are to be loaded and the vertical limits of the steel load restraint NSW units are already fitted on the trailer. The logs will then be loaded at the yard. Once all the logs have been loaded, the driver will use the nylon tapes to secure the load by wrapping them around and then using the auto-tensioner to tighten the tape to hold the load in its place. The driver is then confident of driving away with the logs to be delivered to the destination. Even if the truck climbs a slope, the logs won’t move.
Moving heavy and unwieldy objects on the reach of vehicles across public roads can prove to be a challenge to the fleet operators. But the use of the appropriate restraining accessories helps with a safe carriage of the cargo.
