Need Advice about Load Shift Issue

@pguin89
Just do your due diligence each time.
Document paperwork and take pics of the load with your phone before and after you strap it to show your efforts.

One or two have kind of come after you in this thread and you kept your cool and maintained a professional attitude.
That's not easy to do in an anonymous forum.
I applaud you for that.

 

In case you've never hauled canned or bottled beverages before, here is what happens inside your trailer. I refuse to carry double stacked pallets of cans or bottles, but even a single stack will sometimes lean and fall over if they aren't wrapped enough. Most drivers don't carry enough straps and/or load bars to secure up to 22 pallets of this stuff, and who the heck has the time?

 

What you need are those big cargo airbags.
With those there would be no empty spaces.

 

There's your answer

 

You leave with a poorly secured load then it's on you.
If the shipper will not secure load properly make that notation on the BOL before signing or sealing trailer .
Take pics regardless.

 

Sorry but I have agree that it’s on the driver. Well it’s the shipper but you’re enabling them. Can you imagine a flatbed driver telling a DOT cop the shifted load was the shippers fault? Being union, you’re in the ideal position I would think the drivers could get together and make an issue.....but then you might lose the account

 

Union...'nuf sed. It used to be important.

I got my arse chewed on this site for squawking about my beer loads shifting. I bowed up at first then realized maybe there is a point. I KNOW those roads are rough. I slowed down. All of a sudden my beer loads weren't as shifty no moe. Hmm.

 

When you pick up a load it is your responsibility to check that it is secure if there are or were any issues you should of mentioned this before you chose to drive off. Its like reefer loads drivers will pick up chilled or frozen freight without bothering to do a temp check if the produce gets to the receiver and they say its well above acceptable temp they refuse the load wait you'll say i ran the reefer at the right temp however what ever the temp is when its loaded that'll be what it stays at regardless of what your fridge motor runs at. What we'd do if temps were to high is unload the trailer put it back in the fridge for at least 12 hours this will cool it down to the proper temp then reload it, set the reefer at 34f and good to be accepted.What has a reefer got to do with a flat bed you may say, point being its your responsibility to check what ever load your taking and make sure all the required checks are made, whether its straps, ropes, chains, or temps.

 

I haul the same stuff. We load it the same way your company does. In the beginning I had the same issues. It’s frustrating, but you have to drive VERY carefully. Going straight is fine, but literally ANY movement (turns, reverse, on-off ramps, etc etc ) need to be taken very slowly. Much slower than you think.

It helps if you know the area. There are some turns on my route that I just avoid because it doesn’t matter how slow or smooth you take them, the load will shift because of the road.

 

Sloppy securement like this is why you rarely see a flatbed rolled over. Personally I'd like to see the DOT look inside these vans instead of hassling me over a strap with a nick or a missing WLL tag or because he can’t read the GR70 on the chain link