WOW.....I had an eye opening reminder of how risky and dangerous flatbedding can be.
I picked up a load of concrete forms in Austin, TX on Saturday January 31st heading to Knoxville, AR. I get to the job site and the first thing the guys asks me is if I can carry 50k. I said no way but I can take 47k give or take a few. So they load me with 10 stacks of these forms weighing in at just over 47k. I get them all strapped down and hit the road.
Everything is going smoothly until about the last 20 miles from the customer when I notice in my mirrors that the 3 straps on the front part of the load are loose and flapping in the wind. As I am slowing down, I notice in the passenger mirror that the load has shifted! :eek2: My first concern is that the load does not come off the trailer and harm the public. I ease over to the shoulder of the road and get stopped safely. When I get out to investigate, I can see that the bottom rack holding the forms has collapsed causing the weight of the top stack to not only crush down, but slide to the front and right.
There isn't much I can do on the shoulder of I-40 with all the traffic going by so I tighten up the straps and ease down the road about 4 miles where there was a truck stop. When I get there I take a closer look and decide that a few chains will hold everything together. Luckily I am only 10 miles from the consignee.
I tried calling the consignee (knowing that no one would be in the office on a Sunday but thought I had better try just in case) with no luck. I then call the LS safety departments after hours number and reported to them as to what just occurred. I then get in touch with the agent and let her know what happened.
Monday morning I ease down the road to the consignee and gratefully for me they said not to worry about any load claims as it was evident that it was not my fault and was the result of the rack failing. I noted all this along with the guys name on my BOL and called LS to let them know.
As stated at the beginning of this post, it was a very real and scary reminder of how risky this job can be. Thank goodness the load stayed on the trailer and no one got hurt.
The first couple of pics (top 2) show what the load & racks looked like in it's "good" state from the side and back. The ones below that show where the rack collapsed and how the load shifted.