We Lost Another One-R.I.P. Driver

Usually I don't see any effort put into stopping forward motion. It's securement by putting downward pressure on the load, which is fine as far as it goes, but steel likes to slide. Lumber and sheetrock have a higher coefficient of friction, so if you pull it down onto the deck, it probably won't slide. Steel and aluminum are lot more slippery, so a little bit of friction between the load and the deck isn't going to be enough to stop it from sliding forward if you brake hard. Plus, some of the tubing or beams or whatever that might be unitized with steel straps might want to slide out from the middle, even if the pieces in contact with the deck don't slide.

So what I see a lot of is a) not enough straps / chains holding the stuff down, and b) no effort at all to make sure that it won't slide forward. But as I said, you can see that in loads I pulled in the pictures above. Sometimes it's pretty hard to really secure a load against forward motion, so you drive as carefully as you can. And yet I see guys hauling ### down the road with the bare minimum of downward securement and no securement against forward motion and tailgating four-wheelers. It makes you pray a lot and back off quickly, if you have any sense anyway.

 

Loads of pipe that go over about 2 feet high and other similar loads are difficult to protect from forward movement due to the height logistics. I've though about if maybe a "web" of aircraft cable that was bound together (sort of like a super heavy duty gill net) that would drape over the front of a load then could be secured by pulling on the four corners with chains might be of some help with pipe loads and other higher steel loads, but a tested mockup ultimately may do little good.

Thick plywood and an x-strap might also help for some lighter products such as bundles of galvanized tubing but that's really not practical and would probably do little good in an E-Stop

 

Man, you flatbedders are a special breed. That wood bulkhead with the chains doesn't look any safer. I hope you guys get paid a million dollars to do all that extra stuff and risk your lives, for me, for about the same money, it was so much easier and safer, to run the 20 pallets in, close the door, or fill the dump box or tank, and we truckin', and never worry about it until it's destination. In Buds pictures, in a sudden stop, what's preventing those top beams, or on the step deck, or the round tube, from going for a ride?
BTW, Bud, I don't think you are stupid. I think you're right, you did the best you could with no teacher. Someone told me, "watch how other drivers do it", but that was no guarantee THEY knew what they were doing. It's called "The trucking school of hard knocks".

 

I think really when it comes down to it, no matter what kind of securement u got on ur load, if its ur time to go then theres nothin stopping that stuff from comin thru ur cab or that suicide coil runnin u down,, but everytime that voice in my head tells me throw another chain u better believe im answering it because it might extend my life on this earth by a little bit longer,... I love flatbedding, its hard sometimes , but ive pulled one of those box trailers before and hated every second of it, i couldnt do any other division than flatbed.. I think its alot of flatbedders that would agree its really one of those things u either hate it or love it

 

I have never driven flatbed nor do I want to. Unfortunately I think a lot of companies don't train their drivers properly on how to safely secure a load. Also a lot of drivers don't respect the proper training involved. It's just another driving job. They don't fully think into this. I've seen it many times on the road. Proper training saves lives!

 

I don't think that's entirely true. Roehl does a pretty good job of training their flatbed drivers. I don't ever recall seeing one in trouble.

 

The bulkhead isn't designed to stop forward motion. It won't do that. It's designed to prevent it. And it will do that if built then loaded correctly. You build the bulkhead then ypu load the product against it. If not loaded against it there is a chance for it to fail. Once product starts moving it's hard to stop all that weight. But placed up against the bulkhead and it prevents it from moving from the get go.

 

You mean the 2 days of Securement training roehl does?

 

Let’s not forget the fact that had the 4 wheeler not cut the truck off, he’s be alive today..