Trailer Load Safety Guidance Confirmed By DVSA

Load Restraint Policy Resolved Conflict about load restraint on curtain-sided trailers and bodies appears to have been resolved by a change in policy at the DVSA. The agency has now accepted that loads carried inside curtainsiders built to the European Standard EN 12642-XL do not need internal load restraint because the body and curtains are strong enough to contain the load. Until now, the DVSA has followed the Department for Transport’s (DfT) code of practice, Safety of Loads on Vehicles, which says curtains provide only weather protection because they cannot meet the load restraint requirement of withstanding a sideways force equivalent to 50% of the weight of the load. But since that UK guidance was published in 2002, the European Standard EN 12642-XL for curtain-sided body strength was published in 2006, setting a slightly lower threshold for curtains, equivalent to 40% of maximum payload. Because this is below the 50% stipulated in Safety of Loads on Vehicles, the DVSA had insisted that even bodies and trailers with an EN 12642-XL certificate must have additional internal load restraint. Now the gap between the UK’s code of practice and EN 12642-XL has been bridged. “New European guidance [still in draft] states that vehicles built to the XL standard will meet the 50% of load securing to the side, as per the DfT code of practice. We now accept XL-rated vehicles as providing 50% of the total maximum vehicle load to the side. So you would not need to use additional lashing or other load security solutions, as long as you have loaded the goods with a positive fit,” the DVSA said in a statement. Positive fit is defined as loading right up to the headboard, with no more than 80mm between the load and each curtain, and secured at the rear if the load does not reach the doors or rear of the body. In regards to multidrop work, the DVSA said: “As the load diminishes, the driver must either fill any gaps to maintain the positive fit, or use additional securing measures.” Curtainsiders without EN 12642-XL must still use internal restraint to comply with Safety of Loads on Vehicles. aide automotive have seen more an more companies review the Pallet Truck Restrainer Lee Lock in the last few months, with the ideal time to fit the lock at a trailer build many companies use a body builder to add the Pallet Truck Lock to a trailer or rigid truck.