Trucking industry urged to ensure safe load distribution

To ensure road safety and avoid fines, RFNSW has called on the trucking industry to ensure an even load distribution.

Even distribution of the contents of a container ensures that the weight of the container is evenly distributed across the road transport axle groupings.

Sydney Ports, along with Road and Maritime Services (RMS) will be investigating axle weight breaches and has advised the road transport industry that heavy fines will be issued if the correct procedures are not followed.

“This is a critical issue to ensure road safety and for operators to avoid hefty and unnecessary fines,” said RFNSW General Manager Simon O’Hara.

“It is the responsibility of everyone to make sure that these requirements are met. Making sure that loads are distributed evenly within containers means that everyone is safer and more efficient.”

The agreed procedure for overweight vehicles when weighed is:

• A yellow warning weight breach card is issued by the wharf due to an axle overload and the container will need to go to a CFS (container freight station) depot. Violating the weight limits will have negative repercussions for trucking operators as the container will be sent to a public weighbridge and reweighed, which will incur extra charges.
• A red warning weight breach card is issued by the wharf and the container will be lifted off and will be railed out to Qube Logistics’ inland depot for unpack, which will incur an unknown fee.

Furthermore, the contents of each container must also be restrained to meet Australian load restraint performance standards.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Dudarev Mikhail