Safe loading of vehicles

• Glovebox guide to safe loading and towing
• Loading dos and don'ts
• Maximum dimensions and weights

The way you load your vehicle is crucial to preventing injury to the driver, any passengers or animals that you carry or to other road users. It is also crucial in preventing damage to your vehicle, its equipment or the goods it carries or damage to other vehicles.

Your load must be restrained to stop it shifting on the vehicle when you drive over uneven roads, turn, brake or accelerate.

Avoid overloading your vehicle. Overloading can permanently damage your vehicle and significantly reduce its stability, performance and lifespan – all of which creates a high risk of serious injury or death.

Trucks with a high centre of gravity are particularly unstable when overloaded (especially when operating on uneven surfaces, or barges and small vessels).

For information on basic safety principles that must be followed, drivers and others who place loads in or on vehicles should consult:

• for cars, vans, station wagons, utes, 4 wheel drives etc and light trailers (vehicles whose maximum laden weight is less than 3.5 tonnes) or the weight of the load is up to 500 kilograms: Glovebox guide to safe loading and towing
• for trucks and heavy trailers or for loads of more than 500 kilograms: Truck Loading Code. The Truck Loading Code is available from bookshops.

Following are some basic guidelines:

Loading dos and don'ts

Do

• Do make sure that passengers are seated and wearing an appropriate restraint for their age.
• Do make sure your vehicle's loading space or deck will suit the type and size of the load that you want to carry.
• Do make sure that animals are either attached to the vehicle with a suitable harness or carried behind the front seat or in appropriate crates or pens or cages or behind a cargo barrier (or tethered to the rear of the cab if they are carried on the open deck of a ute).
• Do make sure your vehicle is fitted with suitable clamps to hold the load or anchor points (hooks, eyes or rails) to hold any lashings (straps, ropes or chains) that you will need to use.
• Do make sure the front of a load of goods is pushed against the cargo barrier or headboard or front rack or use extra lashings or clamps to prevent the load moving forward.
• Do make sure you have enough clamps or lashings; that they are in good condition and are strong enough to hold your load to the vehicle so they can prevent it shifting forwards, backwards, sideways and upwards (when going over bumps).
• Do secure the lashings to your vehicle's load anchorage points.
• Do tighten up the lashings.
• Do use wedges and chocks so that your load cannot move.
• Do make sure that loose bulk or fragile loads are covered so that they cannot fall or be blown off your vehicle.
• Do check your load:
  • Before you move
  • After you have travelled 25km, and then regularly after that
  • Whenever you check your tyres
  • Whenever you add or remove items
  • After emergency braking or an excessively sharp or violent manoeuvres.

Don't

• Don't overload your vehicle (by exceeding its manufacturer's maximum laden weight or the maximum legal weight on its individual axles).
• Don't load you vehicle too high (this could make it unstable).
• Don't use rope hooks to restrain heavy loads (check in the Truck Loading Code).
• Don't forget the size, nature and position of your load will affect the handling of your vehicle.
• Don't take risks.
• Don't move the vehicle if any part of the load is not secured.
• Don't leave loose wedges, lashing, chocks and dunnage lying on the vehicle deck once the load has been removed.

Maximum dimensions and weights

There are maximum dimensions and weights for nearly all vehicles. See:

• factsheet 13 Vehicle dimensions and mass
• factsheet 13a Heavy rigid vehicles (including trucks and buses)
• factsheet 13b Light rigid vehicles (including cars, vans, utes, 4WDs)
• factsheet 13c Trailers (full, simple, semi, pole, A- and B- train)
• factsheet 13d Trailers (light simple trailers)
• factsheet 13e Static roll thresholds

If you wish to carry a load or operate a vehicle that exceeds these dimensions see factsheet 53 overdimension vehicles and loads.

Last updated: 27 February 2005