hey buddy.. (us flatbedders appreciate the heads up)

I have always appreciated someone's help in giving me a heads up on what's happening way back on the deck. But one thing to keep in mind is that it should be done with descretion by taking the offer of help to another channel to ward off any zealous official looking for something to do.

 

What about the chains/binders for a steel load ?

 

a lot of steel loads are specified by the shipper as straps only.

those look like sheets of metal roofing or siding on top where the dunnage moved. chains would have the driver owning it.

the strap should have been placed just behind the piece that moved to pull the metal down to it.

but honestly on loads like that , dunnage is sometimes going to move despite best efforts, sometimes it just happens. no one is perfect, anyone can make a mistake, or simply miss something. heck dunnage will even break sometimes.

 

I haul steel decking and there stack up in bundles of sheets. One end is sharp and the other smooth. The load the smooth sided on the outside of the trailer. For years I have used straps. DOT says chains are required now. The straps do a better job for securement, so now I use both. For a load of steel decking that requires about 8 straps, I will fill in with 4 chains to make them happy or comply. And like you mention, dunnage is a big problem with snapping in this case also. Also, I know what you meant on certains shippers requesting straps only BUT you can use softners when you use chains. After securing my load of any kind, I will go and CHECK every piece of dunnage to make sure its not loose. I either remove it or find a way to keep it from coming loose and sometimes even though you try your best, they still get loose, thats way I stop soon as I see a strap or a chain loose.

 

must be a californis dot thing then