Posted By Steve B A driver is ultimately responsible for his load on the public highway. But on a moral front... maybe you should have had a word in his shell like!! lets face it you have obviously had second thoughts by posting this thread.

Posted By Fred Pratley Robert, From your post i assume you meant the goods could not be offloaded safely by you, but the load was still secure? If so then I would say you were correct to refuse to handle the delivery. If the load was unsafe, I would have contacted the sender/supplier, and told them about it. You can't stop the driver from going back and the load is the driver's responsibility. Regards Fred

Posted By Jerry Lucey If attempting to unload pallets from a vehicle places your employees at risk you are right to refuse to attempt to unload the delivery. The driver should be made aware of why you are not offloading his goods and that you consider the load to be unstable. Most drivers are aware of the consequences and that driving with an unsafe load will place their licence in jeoprady. It should be remembered though that a load can become unstable in transit and the driver may have limited options as he may be a distance from his depot. It might be worth discussing the matter with the driver and seeing if he has any ideas as to how to stabilise the load enough to safely remove it from his vehicle. Again Robert, I would stress that as an employer your first duty is to your employees and it sounds as though you did the right thing in not allowing them to offload this unstable load, however while I would refuse to place my employees in jeoprady I would also make provisions for the vehicle to be parked up safely until the haulage company/ driver had the opportunity to make the load safe.