Cargo responsibilities in the supply chain

Legislation on cargo securing defines the roles and responsibilities of the parties involved in the logistics process.

Operators often underestimate or ignore the responsibilities they bear in relation to cargo securing.

The temptation is to attribute all responsibilities to the vehicle driver, as the material executor of the transport. This is wrong!

Furthermore, in situations where several parties contribute to the preparation of the shipment and the loading, for example in case of the use of providers that carry out end of line handling, it is sometimes difficult to correctly identify the figure of the “loader”.

While considering that each case needs a specific treatment, the first step is to study the legal basis that rule responsibilities for each stakeholder. The dedicated pages show the collection of the main laws and regulations governing transport, and therefore the activity of the loader.

National legislation

In addition to considering international conventions and regulations, national legislation of the specific Country needs to be taken into account to understand the responsibilities for cargo securing. If you are interested in italian legislation on cargo securing please follow this link.

EU Legislation

This section provides an overview of the European legislation on technical roadside inspections on cargo securing in force since 20 May 2018, with reference to:

Directive 2014/47/EU on the technical roadside inspection of the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles circulating in the Union

European best practices guidelines on cargo securing for road transport, available here

Load securing technical standards

You find here a review of the technical standards that can be used for the load securing calculation, with an explanation of the physical laws underlying the standards themselves.

Dangerous goods

Although cargo securing is an issue that affects any type of transport, additional measures may be required in case of dangerous goods shipment. In fact, the ADR Agreement for road transport, and the IMDG Code for for the maritime transport of dangerous goods, provide for specific provisions relating to cargo and goods segregation.

Penalties

If you are interested in penalties for cargo securing violations applicable in Italy, please follow this link.