Road haulage · SIC 49410 · the forward shelf on this page
Loads, classes and the documents each one needs
A haulage booking is three decisions pretending to be one: what the load is, what will carry it, and which piece of paper has to be signed at each end. Get the first two wrong and the vehicle turns up and cannot load. Get the third wrong and the goods arrive with nothing to prove they did.
Loads by how they are handled
Nothing here is sorted by what the goods are. It is sorted by how they get on and off, because that is what the vehicle and the two ends have to be able to do.
Palletised, wrapped. On and off by forklift or pallet truck at both ends. The pallet count written on the delivery note is what settles it, counted on at collection and off against a signature.
Banded bundles. Forklift, with the bearers kept under the bundle so the forks never go through it. The piece count settles it, together with a note of any banding already broken when it was offered.
Drums and intermediate bulk containers. Forklift, upright, strapped back against a headboard. Piece count, and seal numbers where anything is sealed.
Framed panels and glass. A-frame or stillage, strapped, never carried flat. Piece count, and a damage check made before the straps go on rather than after they come off.
Loose handball. By hand, agreed when the vehicle is booked. The piece count is taken at both ends, not only at delivery, because by then there is nobody left to disagree with.
Bulk bags. Forklift through the loops, lifted one at a time. Bag count and the weighbridge ticket between them settle what was carried.
What decides the vehicle class
Weight is rarely the thing that decides it. The approach, the turning circle and the height of the doorway decide it far more often, and all three belong to the receiver rather than to the load.
Rigid
For addresses an articulated vehicle cannot reach or cannot leave: narrow lanes, timed streets, yards with one way in and no room to turn.
- Settled by
- Access and turning, not tonnage
Articulated
For pallet counts a rigid cannot take in one run, where the receiving end has a dock or hardstanding able to accept a trailer.
- Settled by
- Pallet count and the dock
Drawbar
Where volume is the constraint and the drop sequence allows the trailer to be left and collected rather than reversed into every address.
- Settled by
- Volume and the drop order
Tail lift
Asked for at booking, not on the day. A tail lift takes payload off the vehicle and takes time off the drop, and both show up in the plan.
- Costs you
- Payload and minutes
Headroom
Measured at the lowest point of the whole approach, not at the gate. A barrier, a canopy or a bridge on the only road in sets the vehicle.
- Measured at
- The lowest point in
Load securing
Straps, chocks, headboard and a plan written before the ramps come down. The plan says where each item sits and why it cannot move.
- Written
- Before loading, not after
Hours are part of the answer
A quote that ignores the clock is a guess. Driving before a break is due, driving in the day and the span from first duty to last are three separate limits, and whichever runs out first ends the run — not whichever seems most important. A collection that cannot be loaded for an hour has spent that hour out of the driver's day, and a second drop that looked reachable on a map stops being reachable.
That is why collection and delivery windows are asked for at booking rather than assumed, and why a run with a long wait at one end is planned differently from a run with none. The planner on the yard page works the three limits against each other and prints the subtraction, so the figure can be checked rather than taken on trust.
Outside what is offered
Said plainly, so that a booking is not taken and then handed back. Anything carried under the dangerous goods rules is outside scope, in any quantity that triggers them. So are abnormal indivisible loads needing a movement order, a notification or an escort. Chilled and frozen goods are outside scope, and an insulated box will not be offered as though it were refrigeration. Livestock is outside scope. Waste movements belong on the site works side under a transfer note and are not booked as general freight.