Every once in a while cargo securement seems to become an issue, whether from a coil of steel that’s fallen off a flatbed trailer and killed someone, or boxed merchandise busting through the walls of an overturned van that has formed a traffic-stopping mess. 

Securement straps and chains are visible on a flatbed but not inside a van, so many cargoes travel with nothing but pressure from adjacent commodities and trailer walls keeping them in place. Federal rules require stuff in a van or reefer to be tied down, too, but it’s ought of sight and evidently often overlooked by inspectors.  

Apparently this is a concern in Europe, too, because Koegel, a dominant trailer builder in Germany, recently displayed a van with numerous securement options aboard. That was at the giant IAA show in Hannover.

The trailer’s called the Cargo, and according to a Koegel press release, its features include a VarioFix perforated steel external frame equipped with 13 pairs of lashing rings for securing the load. Each ring can take 2,000 kilograms (4,400 pounds) of tensile force.

Inside, the IAA trailer had several optional load-securing packages in three rung sections for hauling waste paper, beverages, and tires, the release said. In addition to a riveted pallet limiting rail, the waste paper package had two rows of steel anchoring rails, a series of aluminum insertable slats or lattices, and aluminum telescoping beams to secure the load in or against the direction of travel.

“Individual equipment for securing crates and barrels demonstrates how a plank tarpaulin can be used with six vertical aluminum slats on the left-hand side,” the release said. “On the right-hand side, this variant features two rows of aluminum lattices,” something like our logistics-tracks.  

Steel and aluminum tie-down points and lashing hooks and rails were on board to handle the other cargoes. “Koegel's solutions now match the guidelines set out by Michelin for the transport of tires” – an observation that describes some European customers’ demands that shipments to be transported safely and without damage.

In North America, it’s not unusual for trailers to arrive at docks and upon opening doors, receivers see a jumble of boxes instead of items neatly stacked as they should be. There’s no shortage of equipment available from American and Canadian manufacturers to secure cargo, from load bars to straps and log channels to plastic wrap, that keeps individual items on their pallets. They just have to be used.