If you want to run flats...

Same thing goes for curtain loads also. Picked up a slinky relay at Gary a couple of months ago that was loaded shotgun. The last few coils had slid toward the back of the trailer and the straps were loose. The driver who dropped it was very lucky no coils came off.

 

I have always been told NOT to use the stake pockets and ALWAYS use the spools cause the weld is stronger. i have used both, sometimes you have to.

 

I use both, but if I use spools I use two of them. For instance I picked up 3 smaller coils today 10-15ks. If I didn't use the spools I could not have secured them as there weren't enough stake pockets in range for 9 chains. Either way I hate getting relays that I have to fix. If its something really bad though I'd call dispatch, but mostly I just grumble and fix it.

 

The Spools on our new East trailers, are rated higher than the stake pockets.

For a moment, I thought Bucks had gone insane, until I realized he was assuming the Coil was Suicide, whereas I was assuming it was shotgun.

If it's one of the old steel-framed flats (wood-decked), you want to be around the stake pocket, if the chain's not long enough, you can hook it to the stake pocket.

on the aluminum trailers, Stake-pockets/ spools are ok.

So, the long and short of it is, we currently have such an eclectic ranged of trailers with different bits, it's difficult to have an accurate policy.

Except for those pop-up anchor points, don't use those. ever. They've started breaking

 

The fact remains that if you pick up a load that is not secured properly you need to let your FM know about it. The only way that the company will find out about people not doing their job is by drivers picking up these relays passing the information along. The other way they find out is when a load shifts or comes off a trailer, and that is all bad.

 

That's right, rub it in...