Loadsafe Australia Pty Ltd - Providing safe, low risk and compliant Load Restraint Solutions
About Load Restraint
The evolution of road transport has seen larger quantities of different products being transported across longer distances on modern vehicles with higher speed, cornering and breaking capabilities. Unfortunately, movement and loss of load has resulted in more incidents of death and injury. This has meant that increased safety methods of load restraint have needed to be developed and continue to be designed and innovated by diligent engineers and operators.
If the direction or speed of a loaded transport vehicle changes (when swerving for example), it is imperative that the load must continue to follow the exact path and speed of the vehicle, otherwise the load will shift on the vehicle or even dislodge from it.
There are four directions in which a vehicle’s motion can change:
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Forwards
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Rearwards
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Sideways (in either direction)
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Vertically (either upwards or downwards)
These changes of a vehicles motion are a direct consequence of:
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the friction forces (horizontal) between the road and the vehicle’s tyres and/or
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the direct forces (horizontal and vertical) caused by contact with objects including other vehicles, kerbs, gutters, bumps, potholes etc.
Compliance Obligations
Since 2004 in Australia, Regulations have required each of the following three combinations of accelerations be applied to the vehicle separately when considering the restraint of loads:
If a loaded transport vehicle is travelling on a hot day on a sealed road, the friction forces on the vehicle can be very high. If the load is slippery (steel load tied-down on a steel deck), the load can easily shift on the vehicle. However, if the load has high friction (steel load tied-down on high friction rubber matting) the load cannot easily shift on the vehicle.
Air-flow around the load can cause relatively high accelerations on the load (greater than 1.0g) in any direction. The air flow can result from both vehicle movement and wind. Current Regulation performance standards provide no guidance on the magnitude of these effects.
Compliance and Risk Management
Compliance with current Regulation performance standards does not guarantee the safety of loads. It is only one step in reducing the risk in the total transport operation.
Loadsafe is committed to providing industry with load restraint solutions that not only meet performance standards, but also minimises risk by reducing dependence on operator diligence, knowledge and skill.
Productivity and Efficiency
Industry practice using first generation curtain-sided vehicles with drop-in side gates was an improvement over previous tarpaulin-based load protection/restraint/containment systems. However, these systems cannot be applied quickly and application times are excessive for local deliveries.
Loadsafe is continuously developing alternative load restraint solutions which bypass these traditional solutions and also enhance productivity and efficiency.