Cargo & Freight · Driver Training VideoLoad Locks & Van Freight

Every load you haul has to survive one thing: hard braking. Federal cargo securement rules assume your freight gets hit with 0.8 g decelerating forward, half a g backward, and half a g side to side — and it still can't shift, slide, or fall. That's not a suggestion.

In a dry van, your main tool for that test is the load lock — also called a load bar or decking bar. It wedges between the trailer's E-track or logistic track and holds a section of freight from sliding forward or backward. Here's what trips drivers up.

First: rating

Every load lock has a working load limit stamped on it. If you don't know it, you don't know what you're protecting. Never stack more weight against one bar than it's rated for — split the load across more bars instead.

Second: placement

A load lock only works if both ends are seated in a rated track slot or braced against a solid structural point — not resting against the rear doors, not wedged against a stack of boxes that can crush. The doors are not a load-bearing wall. Treat them like they're not there.

Third: coverage

One bar across the top of a stack does nothing for freight that can shift underneath it. Tall or mixed freight often needs bars at more than one height, plus dunnage — airbags, honeycomb, or void-fill — to close gaps so nothing has room to build momentum before it hits anything.

Fourth: the math behind it

The rules require the combined strength of your securement — bars, straps, and blocking together — to hold at least half the weight of what you're restraining. One light-duty bar wedged against a heavy pallet isn't securement. It's decoration.

Your company standard: block and brace every shipment so it can't move in any direction before you shut the doors — not after a rattle at the first turn.

A shifted load isn't just a mess to clean up. It's a violation, a possible out-of-service order, and on a bad day, it's freight coming through the wall behind your seat. Take the extra five minutes.