Lorry overturns put heavy load risks in spotlight

Two recent lorry overturns have sharpened public concern about whether heavy loads are being properly balanced, declared and secured before they take to the country’s roads.

The crashes — one involving a vehicle transporting waste and another carrying containers — have generated discussion on how operators ensure vehicles are legally loaded, properly balanced and safe for public roads.

According to an industry leader who spoke to Barbados TODAY, managing cargo compliance is a complex challenge that relies heavily on practical experience, strict internal procedures and constant vigilance, especially when official documentation or classroom training falls short.

Dave Hinds, director of Hinds Transport Services Ltd, said ensuring a vehicle is safe before it sets off involves distinct procedures depending on whether the cargo is a standard shipping container or an out-of-gauge load.

Director Hinds Transport Services Dave Hinds (contributed photo)

He said: “First of all, let me say that we transport mostly containers, so the loading is not our responsibility or offloading.

“Our responsibility is to ensure that the equipment is safe. In other words, it has four functioning twist locks, which lock the container onto the trailer, that it has good suspension and proper tyres, and that the structural integrity of the trailer itself is not compromised.”

When dealing with out-of-gauge cargo — items that exceed normal container dimensions — strict regulations and additional safety measures are enforced.

He continued: “The requirement for MTW [Ministry of Transport and Works], as I understand it, is that anything that overhangs more than six inches on either side, either the left, right, or the back… requires permission from MTW and certainly an outrider, and it has to be identified with a flag so that other road users can see the overhang.”

To secure irregular loads, specialised equipment is used depending on the weight and material of the cargo. Heavy equipment is secured using heavy-duty chains and locking come-alongs rather than fabric straps. Furthermore, extra precautions are taken to prevent slippage when metal cargo meets a metal trailer bed.

Hinds added: “If we are carrying a metal load on a metal platform, we either put rubber between the two metals or wood, because as you know, metal to metal is perfect for sliding and slipping. The rubber or the wood would be an insulation to stop the thing from moving.”

Centre of gravity is another crucial factor in preventing vehicle rollovers, though it presents unique challenges. Heavy loads with a high centre of gravity are shifted to specialised low-boy trailers to minimise rollover risks. But, assessing the centre of gravity inside sealed shipping containers is often impossible until the vehicle is underway.

“We’ve had containers that were loaded top-heavy, so the centre of gravity is too high,” Hinds said. “And obviously we wouldn’t know that until there’s a telltale sign. We’ve had a number of occasions where containers weren’t behaving the way that they should behave if they were properly loaded, and we have abandoned the journey before it endangered anybody.”

Addressing the accidents, Hinds highlighted how specific cargo types, such as liquids or mixed waste, pose inherent stability hazards due to shifting weight distribution during transit.

“The trucks that capsised are a peculiar situation, as I understand it,” he said.

“One was garbage and again that is the centre of gravity… you don’t know how it was loaded. It may have had light stuff at the bottom like grass and heavier stuff at the top. And the other one was some totes with liquid in it. Liquid is a very difficult thing to transport because the centre of gravity is not the same in a corner as it is on the street… depending on how full the containers are, the centre of gravity shifts because it’s fluid.”

He emphasised that matching cargo weight to vehicle capacity is vital, but hauliers frequently encounter misdeclared freight weights from shippers.

“What we have found over the years is that shipments… in the case of containers, oftentimes they exceed the load that is stipulated on the container itself.

“The documentation, the bill of lading, etcetera, may indicate a weight, and when we transport it, we know that the weight is not correct…. When we have to lift the equipment off, we then size the crane according to the weight that is declared, and we often find that the weight is underestimated… as much as 20, 25 per cent in some cases.”

When asked about formal training for drivers regarding weight distribution and load securing, Hinds pointed out that driver experience remains the main defence against road accidents, given the lack of formal local training programmes.

“The drivers are experienced; they handle these loads every day, so they know the characteristics that the load should display in terms of trailer handling,” he said.

“It is difficult to get training for that kind of thing. The best training is QBE — people that are qualified by experience. Nobody else has more experience in transporting loads than people that do it on a daily basis.”

(RR)