Royal Decree 563/2017 dated 2 June, regulating technical inspections on the road of commercial vehicles circulating in Spanish territory, went into effect this past May. One of the issues addressed is the inspection of load securing, with the aim of ensuring that goods travel properly packaged and loaded on a suitable vehicle. Until now, only the General Regulation on Traffic (RD 1428/2003) established minimum guidelines on how loads should be transported in a vehicle.
Annex III of this new decree expands on the technical standards that must be applied to ensure loads are properly secured in lorries.
Although the new stowage regulations only hold the transporter and/or owner of the lorry responsible, at BDtrans we have established guidelines and trained all our staff, particularly the loading staff and drivers, to assist in proper stowage in all lorries. They are as follows:
• Only load goods that are safe and suitable for transport.
• Have all the certification in order for the parts of the vehicle used to hold the load.
• Ensure that the vehicle is in good condition and that the space reserved for the load is clean.
• The floor of the vehicle must not bear excessive pressure during loading operations.
• The load must be correctly distributed within the vehicle. For this, load distribution on the axles of the vehicles and the spaces considered acceptable must be taken into account.
• The vehicle must not be overloaded.
Regulation EN 12195-1:2010, concerning securing loads in lorries, is focused on matters such as the number of lashing straps to be used, or their mooring capacity, among many other things. To avoid sliding, tilting, rolling, rocking, substantial deformation and rotation of all elements of the load in any direction, methods such as closing, locking or mooring must be used.
At BDtrans, trailers and lorries with these certifications are already prepared to comply with this new regulation. As for lorries without this certification, the corresponding modifications have been made to their structures to obtain the correct and necessary certifications for this purpose.
The Mossos d’Esquadra have activated an e-mail address itpg338@gencat.cat where you can write with any questions. In addition, the DGT has committed to performing more than 15,000 technical inspections a year, and has trained the Civil Guard with the appropriate tools to check whether the vehicles comply with the regulations. In this way, the risk of accidents in the transport of goods due to poor stowage of load.
