Simplicity of the solution leads to time saving for truck drivers
The culmination of three years of research and testing has seen the launch of the buckleless load restraint system for curtainsiders from Express Truck Curtains (ETC).
“After extensive field testing, I now have the product ready for market,” company director Doug Donaldson, whose firm is based in west Gippsland, tells ATN.
His company has already signed up Newcastle firm Hume Doors & Timber to the system.
The company says its product is “the only load restraint buckle-free truck curtain system that tensions the curtain from the top”.
While the tensioner is the same as other truck curtain systems, using it allows a pivot arm to lower the track, thereby loosening the curtain horizontally.
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The curtain can then be dragged as normal using the hooks.
“Because the internal curtain hooks grab on the external edge of a 6 mm thick coaming rail, obstacles are rarely an issue,” BTC says.
“This means strap spacings can be determined before the body is built.”
A rigid and trailer combination with space for 24 pallets has been demonstrated to take 50 seconds to open and 75 seconds to close, with tightening automated.
It claims time savings for drivers of up to four hours for vehicles making around 30 drop a day due to the absence of repeat buckle tightening.
The system can be tailor-made and be presented as a flat-pack kit, while the lack of buckles, while ETC highlights the ‘blank canvass’ the lack of buckles and straps allows for the curtain for branding and advertising purposes.