Experts from the UIC “Loading Rules” Group met mid-January 2017 to achieve a long-lasting work of reviewing/amending in French and German of the UIC Code of Practice for the loading and securing of goods on railway wagons – the result of a long experience and continuous development of cargo securing systems and techniques of RUs.

Until present they had been available as annual supplements for a paper document that was inserted in original documents. Optimising readability of text and access to electronic resources to improve efficiency are key issues which is why it was time to switch to two digitalised volumes, available for free to all actors in the rail logistics supply chain.

Safety is a concern for all actors in the rail logistics supply chain: RUs, carriers, consigners/shippers; they must know and comply with the proper implementation of the UIC Code of Practice for the loading and securing of goods on railway wagons and use the adequate equipment. Their purpose is to provide it as a reference.

From April 2017 users should refer to the UIC-ETF Shop http://www.shop-etf.com/en/technical-documents/loading-guidelines.html to download the two volumes in French, German and English: the first one (for general principles) contains the code of practice to be observed for the loading and securing of goods and the other volume (goods) concerns specific types of goods, developed in compliance with the principles set out in volume one, based on tests in practice.

The impact in terms of consultations of these digitalised versions will be measured, communicated to members and used to step up the dissemination of the UIC Code of Practice for the loading and securing of goods on railway wagons.
This code of practice will continue to be periodically reviewed and amended by experts from the UIC “Loading Rules” Group.