Securing cargo - suggestions

Hey, GRMers:

My friend and his wife recently bought a bakery that does commercial donuts for a regional grocery chain. Deliveries had been made in a couple worn out old Astros which were really too small.

They recently bought an ex-Spallco box truck, which has plenty of room, but they've had trouble with racks falling over in the back and wiping out product. They have ~5'-6' tall bakery racks with casters, like you see in store bakeries everywhere.

They've been securing them with light cargo straps at the top and bottom, back to the rails on the wall of the truck, then putting bungies between the straps to keep the flats of product in place. However, this doesn't always work in harder turns.

Anybody got suggestions, or at least a good source website for truck fittings that they can look at? Thanks.

Hold the racks to the wall with cargo netting, which will in turn keep the product in place?

Enclose at least two sides of the racks with food-safe stainless steel and add a way to capture the front and back of the trays to the racks.

Place a spot on the floor to capture the racks to keep the wheels from moving around and then strap the racks to the wall in the normal way.

Cargo nets on each shelf of the racks? Please let them know they are welcome to drop off any crushed or damaged pastries at my house and I will dispose of them.

Why not use a load bar that spreads in front of the rack vertically? Holds all trays and help secure rack from tipping. I bought mine for the truck from harbor freight pretty cheap.

This is easy and cheap. Get yourself some rolls of "pallet wrap" basically a wide roll of shrink wrap. Wrap around each cart before it goes on the truck and secure as normal.

Also, look into getting some E-track into that truck with the proper straps. You will love how easy it is to secure and release a load when you have the proper equipment

Wrap the racks in something, then strap the whole thing down

Thanks for the suggestions. The issue with pallet wrap is that they may not deliver a whole rack to any one location. Plus, they need to take the rack home, and just leave the flats.

Some kind of e-track system should fit the bill. Thanks again.

Wait. You mean they don't already have E-rack in the rig? Wow. They should get on that.

My box truck trailer has e-track on the walls and the floor.

turboswede wrote: Wait. You mean they don't already have E-rack in the rig? Wow. They should get on that.

I don't know if they do or not - they just bought the truck a couple weeks ago from Spallco. I assume it's got the usual tieoff rails down the wall, but I doubt is has e-track.

Add a couple of blocks to the wall on each side of the racks, high and low, so that the racks are positively located once they are against the wall. That way you only have to strap them to the wall. If you add floor and ceiling anchors that could be via a tension rod that holds both racks and product but is easy and quick to undo for load and unload.

You can also get the zip on vinyl covers for your racks.

ok.. here is a thought. 2 rows of e-track.. high and low.. and plywood (5/8 will work) sheets cut to fit the racks. Put racks into place against the wall, put plywood against rack, use e-track straps to press the plywood to the racks as they are secured to the wall of the truck

I worked in a greenhouse growing flowers in my misspent youth. We moved flats of flowers to the store in racks that are basically like bakery racks. All of them had been modified with tabs or rails that allowed the flats of plants to be loaded only on one side of the rack. You loaded the rack and then put the open side against the wall and strapped it down.
Your friends need to find a good stainless welder to modify the racks to keep things from sliding out three of the sides.

I have a hair-brained idea. Spandex with hooks.

If you put hooks spaced the same as the racks, and attached spandex to some wood or aluminum 1x4 or something, you could stretch it around the rack and hook the wood to a couple hooks on the wall. It can be done with E-track as well.

The trucks that delivered racks of flowers to us at Home Depot had canvas that was laced to an 8' long steel ledger with bungee cord. The steel ledger had j-shaped hooks on it and the walls had slots. They just wrapped it around the rack and hooked it in the wall.

Don't send out half-full delivery trucks and there wont be room for racks to fall over?

Here is what I was saying... it was a big canvas panel that was attached on one end to a metal post with bungee cord. They just wrapped it around the carts and hooked it on the wall.

mazdeuce wrote: I worked in a greenhouse growing flowers in my misspent youth. We moved flats of flowers to the store in racks that are basically like bakery racks. All of them had been modified with tabs or rails that allowed the flats of plants to be loaded only on one side of the rack. You loaded the rack and then put the open side against the wall and strapped it down. Your friends need to find a good stainless welder to modify the racks to keep things from sliding out three of the sides.

Winner