Truck drivers, who deliver goods on long distances, often deal with plumbing cargo. The most important issues are the actions of the driver while plumbing in extreme situations.
The plumbing of cargo is always realized by the sender’s initiative. It isn’t a compulsory procedure. The recipient of the shipment can also ask to put seals. The seals are not the protection of the goods. It is a mean of control that allows checking the access to the valuable goods during the run. It has no sense to plumb the tent trucks. Speaking about the truck shipments, it’s recommended to plumb the locks on the metallic vans, the locks of international marine containers, and wooden boxes. Cisterns with the automobile fuel are plumbed up to the lids. To control the condition of the cargo various seals from different materials were developed.
From the variety of the seals the most popular ones are outlined below:
- Lead cylindrical seals;
- Cylindrical polyethylene seals;
- Laminar seals made of plastic – they can be protected by the secret signs or numbers;
- Barrier seals – it isn’t possible to move this seal without destruction of its protective package;
- Paper labels with the numbers – they fix the opening of the carton package;
- Special devices with the temperature and hit indicators – can be used several times.
Today apart from the standard lead cylindrical seals, new means of plumbing are used. They are numerical plastic seals. Each part of these seals is unique. The producer prints the logo, the name of the company, and the secret signs on the strength plastic. The main mean of protection is a unique number of the seal. The numbers are fixed in the documents. Despite the simplicity of the controlling means, it is impossible to fake.
Plumbing is widely-used in international multimodal transportations. The sender of the cargo plumbs the marine containers during the transportations by the different types of transport. In this case, the container can be transferred on the railway platform, automobile trailer, or ship. In some countries, specialists experiment with the extra plumbing of the trucks and vans. They use seals with the electronic GPS device.
As for the drivers, the rules of plumbing don’t refer to them. But the truck drivers should know the rules to avoid being responsible for the incorrect plumbing. The driver mustn’t be present during the procedure. Moreover, the specialist of the transport company can ask the driver to leave the warehouse if the secret technologies are applied for the ltl delivery. But the driver must check the seals while taking cargo. The driver should pay attention to the reliability of the wire, dense seal fixing and a proper impression on the seal. If something is wrong, the truck driver can ask to change the seal. The same actions should be taken if the numbers or letters on the seal are not readable. A lubricated image of an impression can be considered as an attempt to replace the control mean.