Loading, axle loads and securing of cargo
This domain tests two linked skills: keeping the vehicle inside its permitted weights, and keeping the load on the vehicle. Questions often quote a weight, a position and a wheelbase, and expect you to reason rather than guess.
Weights and axle loads
- Your permitted total weight (tilladt totalvægt) and permitted axle loads (tilladt akseltryk) are stated on the registration document and the manufacturer's plate. Those figures, not a rule of thumb, are the legal maximum.
- Danish general framework: about 10 t per axle, higher for a driven axle with twin tyres and air suspension, and 40 t for a normal combination - more only where vehicle and road are approved for it, such as modular road trains on the designated network.
- Distribute the load: heavy items low and between the axles, and never so far back that the steering axle is unloaded. Keep roughly a fifth of the weight on the steering axle to retain steering and braking.
- You are responsible for the weight you drive on, even if someone else loaded it.
Securing the load
- Rules are based on the forces in EN 12195-1: about 0.8 g forward and 0.5 g sideways and rearward. The load must not shift under those forces.
- Friction does much of the work. Steel on wet steel has little; anti-slip mats raise it a lot, so fewer lashings are needed with mats than without.
- Every strap carries a label with lashing capacity (LC, in daN) and standard tension force (STF). Damaged or unreadable labels make the strap unusable.
- Blocking or form-fit against a headboard or stanchions is the strongest and cheapest method. Top-over lashings rely on friction; direct lashings carry more.
- Re-check after the first ten kilometres and protect edges from sharp corners.
Worked example. A 900 kg pallet is placed 1.8 m behind the rear axle of a tractor unit with a 3.6 m wheelbase. The load taken off the front axle is 900 × 1.8 ÷ 3.6 = 450 kg. The reasoning: the load acts as a lever about the rear axle, so the front axle loses weight in proportion to the distance ratio - which is why heavy pallets sit over or ahead of the rear axle.
Traps that cost marks
- Adding the LC of four straps and assuming that is the secured weight; friction and angle matter.
- Forgetting that an unsecured load is the driver's offence, not the loader's.