Knowledge
Load securing and bodywork
Load securing is usually discussed as the driver's responsibility. For a body-building workshop it is just as much a design question: what you build determines what the driver has to lash to, and a body without usable lashing points makes the requirement impossible to meet in practice.
Updated August 2026
The basic requirement
Loads must be secured so they cannot shift in a way that endangers road safety. The requirement sits in traffic legislation and is checked at roadside inspections, where shortcomings can lead to an immediate ban on driving.
The forces involved are substantial. Under braking, a forward force of roughly the same magnitude as the load's own weight applies — a tonne of cargo may need lashings dimensioned for around a tonne of forward force. Anyone who has fixed lashing points into thin side panelling has built something that looks right and does not hold.
Responsibility is shared. The driver is responsible for the load being secured, but whoever loaded it and whoever built the vehicle have their parts. A vehicle without the means to secure a normal load is a design fault, not a driver error.
What it means for the bodywork
The strength of lashing points must be known and marked. A point with no stated capacity is a point nobody can calculate with. What is marked must also be what the point withstands together with its mounting — a heavy eye bolted into thin plate is as weak as the plate.
Number and placement determine whether the load can be secured at all. Points too far apart or at the wrong height force lashing angles that sharply reduce actual capacity.
Flatbeds, drop sides and sliding curtains have their own strength, sometimes used as load securing. If the body is intended to hold load by containment that must be stated — otherwise someone will rely on walls not built for it.
Document what you built. A drawing or a report showing where the points sit and what they take is what lets the customer secure loads correctly, and what protects you if something still goes wrong.
Common shortcomings
Unmarked lashing points are the most common. They exist, they look sturdy, and nobody knows what they hold.
Points left over from a previous body. During a rebuild old mountings often stay put without anyone checking whether they are still fixed to something load-bearing.
Corrosion at the mounting. A point approved on delivery can be halved after a few winters of road salt, particularly where dissimilar metals meet.
Lashing equipment that does not match. High-capacity straps in low-capacity points make the point the weak link, which is rarely obvious to whoever is loading.
Checklist when building
To go through before the vehicle leaves the workshop.
- Check that every lashing point has a stated capacity and that the marking is still there.
- Verify that the mounting carries what the point is marked for, not just that the eye does.
- Review number and placement against the load the customer will actually carry.
- Record in the report where the points sit and what they take.
- On a rebuild: inventory old points and either remove or actively approve them.
- Check corrosion at mountings on vehicles that have been in service.
- Hand the documentation to the customer, not only to the binder.
Common questions
- Who is responsible for load securing?
- The driver is responsible for the load being secured in transit. Whoever loaded it carries responsibility for how that was done, and whoever built the vehicle for it being possible to secure loads on it. At a roadside check the driver is stopped, but a design fault is still a design fault.
- Must lashing points be marked?
- A point without a stated capacity cannot be calculated with, which in practice makes it unusable for correct load securing. Mark the capacity and make sure the marking survives the road environment.
- What applies when rebuilding an existing body?
- Treat it as a new construction in that respect. Old mountings may sit in material that has been removed or weakened, and responsibility for the vehicle working follows whoever rebuilt it.
- Is containment against the drop sides enough?
- Only if the sides are built and documented to take those forces. Many sides are weather and roll-off protection, not structural parts, and that does not show from the outside.
Sources
Rules change. Always check against the source before acting — this page is an overview, not legal advice.
- Swedish Transport Agency provisions on load securing — requirements for how loads are secured in transit
- European standard for lashing equipment — capacities, marking and calculation method
- The chassis manufacturer's bodybuilder instructions — where and how mountings may be made on that chassis
Document what you built
A report per vehicle covering what was checked and what applies, printable and handed over with the vehicle — instead of living as notes with whoever happened to do the job.