Container Handling Equipment Manufacturers Association

Carrying loaded skips one on top of another.

The Container Handling Equipment Manufacturers Association (CHEM) is a trade association whose members manufacture and supply skip and hook loaders, refuse collection vehicles and static compactors.

It has come to our notice over recent weeks that skip vehicles have been stopped by the police for carrying a full skip on top of another full skip on the grounds that it constitutes a dangerous load. We have been asked to comment on this practice and to give an opinion on whether this is a safe thing to do.

Until the late 1990s almost all skip loaders had a shaft connecting the upper ends of the lift arms which effectively limited the height of the skip and load which could be carried. This has changed over recent years so that so that today almost all skip loaders are supplied without a top shaft and this allows higher skips to be carried.

All manufacturers issue an operators handbook with each skip loader and, in addition to the operating instructions, it may contain information including safety dos and don`ts related to the loading, tipping and offloading of skips.

As far as load safety is concerned CHEM members have, in the past, taken the view that it is the  responsibility of the driver to ensure his load is safe to take on the public highway i.e. that it is sheeted and suitably restrained.

CHEM members who supply skip loaders have debated this question over recent days and have concluded that they do not recommend  carrying a loaded or partly loaded skip on top of another loaded or partly loaded skip.  The reasons for this are:-

1. The top skip is unstable and at risk of falling off the bottom skip during sudden braking. In such an event the skip loader cab guard is unlikely to prevent the top skip from rolling or sliding forwards over the cab.

2. The top skip could possibly be at risk of falling from the side of vehicle during a sudden combined steering and braking action.

3. Sheeting the top skip and securing the ropes to the skip loader does not, in our opinion, provide a satisfactory method of securing the load.

4. We do not consider ratchet load restraints to be a solution because the load in the bottom skip could compress under the motion of the vehicle combined with the weight of the top skip allowing the restraints to loosen or become detached from their anchor points.

The Vehicle Operator and Services Agency (VOSA) have published a revised edition of the "Safe operator`s guide" which contains helpful guidance on vehicle loading and load safety. This guide is free to download at http://www.dft.gov.uk/vosa/repository/The%20Safe%20Operators%20Guide.pdf