Think Twice Before Helping a Courier Strap Down your Outgoing Freight

It’s a familiar scenario for many businesses, not least the many wholesalers and retailers who ship bulky goods daily out from their premises. The courier rushes in with his open 1-tonne ute or a larger truck. It’s 3pm, he’s apparently had a rough day. Hoping to make life a bit easier for him on his last leg, you, the obliging business owner, wave him in as close as space permits to the outgoing consignment, and then proceed to load up the heavy boxes. The driver doesn’t complain, instead springing up onto the tray of the ute, proceeds to stack the outgoing delivery neatly against the front of the tray. It’s a large consignment, almost 2 full pallets, but the goods aren’t actually stacked on a pallet. All the more reason to give the poor guy a hand, it’s not unheard of for a transport company to on-charge any demurrage resulting from an excessive hand load or hand unload. And few people would question the ethics of this either, you’ve got to draw the line somewhere between the incidental loading and unloading which comes with the job of being a courier driver.. and repetitive heavy manual labour.

All these thoughts are running through your head as you lug up the last heavy box. The driver smiles gratefully and gestures with his hand. “Here, grab hold of this strap! Just fix it under there on the other side..” You grab the strap, noticing how worn it appears. Frayed and faded, it has no doubt seen years of wear and tear, and been subjected to whatever customers and the weather could throw at it. Fumbling, you fix the metal end hook of the ratchet to the most secure piece of metal you can find underneath the side of the steel tray, and call out to the driver on the other side that it’s good to go.

The familiar sound of the ratchet strap ensues, and the gradual tightening confirms that the courier is on the case. You peer around the side of the load. “Not too hard there mate – don’t want to squash those boxes, there’s some fragile glassware in those..” The driver obediently eases off and commences to toss over the second strap, and the procedure repeats itself. Not long after, the load appears secured, you’ve signed the dotted line on the drivers smart phone confirming pickup of the goods.. and he’s on his way. As the courier ute disappears around the corner, your mind remains fixated on the top boxes - - maybe a couple more notches of the ratchet strap wouldn’t have gone astray…?

Chain of Responsibility – (practically) Everyone is Responsible

In Australia, courier drivers are required to ensure that their vehicle doesn’t exceed mass or dimension limits, and to ensure that anything loaded onto the vehicle is properly restrained. However “loaders” and “packers” also have responsibility. Specifically, a loader’s responsibility includes placing goods in such a way that they do not become unstable, move, or fall off the vehicle. As such, it would seem logical for the “loader” to try to avoid getting involved with the tying down of the load, and potentially exposing themselves to a negligence claim if it turned out that the goods were not tied down correctly, and this resulted in an accident. However don’t just turn a blind eye to what the courier is doing, if you notice something, speak out and help keep the courier, the public, and of course your precious cargo safe while en route to its final destination.

Disclaimer: Freight Quote is an Australian freight broker company, specialising in the transportation of bulky goods for Australian businesses. The information in this article in general in nature and is not intended to be legal advice.