A letter to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal in Texas illustrates one of these instances. The writer was behind a gravel truck and, although the truck’s bed was tarped, gravel still kept coming out of the bottom and damaged the writer’s vehicle.

What should either party do in this instance? Short of telling the writer, “Don’t drive behind a gravel truck,” truck drivers need to be aware of their load, including both the truck and the tarp.

For the tarp, make sure it is applied properly, fully over the bed or around the load. A too-loose or too-tight tarp can become damaged during transport. Hooks rubbing against the tarp also create holes in the material. The tarp, as well, needs to be in good condition. Do not attach a tarp that has holes in it; while vinyl, polyethylene, and mesh tarps are used to cover loads, the material needs to keep the gravel inside the truck and, in many cases, to protect it from weather.

At the same time, a truck that’s in poor condition, one that has enough room to let gravel, asphalt, trash, or rocks escape, should not be on the road. As you can see from this letter, a truck that does not fully contain its materials becomes a hazard to motorists.

A recent article in the Kern Valley Sun discusses this issue within the town. Not everyone takes their trash to a dump site in a tarp, it appears, and the town’s Waste Management Department plans to charge a fee for those that arrive at a disposal site without a tarp. Those spotted on the road not covering their trash, however, will receive a much larger fine. According to this article, plastic or canvas tarps held in place by rope or bungee cords is acceptable.

Using a tarp to cover trash in a car or pickup truck can be done with any type of material, as long as it’s held in place. A polyethylene tarp will hold the load down and also protect it from water, in case rain hits. If water isn’t a concern, however, using a polypropylene mesh tarp is also acceptable. If canvas is the only material around your home, it, too, is also acceptable, as long as it’s held in place. All tarps used to cover a truck load must be secured firmly to prevent wind whip, as this can tear or shorten the lifespan of the material.

Flatbed truck tarps are harder to come by, although various dealers of tarps carry sizes large enough to cover a load for either a flatbed or dump truck. For tarping your own flatbed, here are some of the highlights in the video:

• Have a forklift driver bring the tarp up to the top of the load. Applying the tarp needs to start from the top of the load and go down.
• Once the tarp surrounds the load, bungee cords need to go through all D-rings. The bungee cords are either attached through two D-rings or attached from a D-ring to the side of the flatbed truck.
• Flatbed tarps designed to cover a load of lumber in the video have side flaps. Although the tarp around the load is secured under the flaps, the flaps themselves shouldn’t be blown about by the wind, as any wind getting under the tarp can cause wind whip and tearing. This portion of the tarp should be secured with bungee cords after the rest of the tarp has been.
• All hooks attached to D-rings should face outward. Otherwise, the metal might cut through the tarp.

In Anderson, South Carolina, whether to use a tarp or another material for transporting trash is somewhat of an issue. Essentially, the town wants to prevent litter when residents transport their trash by car or truck and, in a local law, requires a “tarp” to cover any trash being moved. This includes trash cans that even have a locked lid. In any instance trash could escape, a tarp-like material is required. Residents, on the other hand, think that an actual polyethylene tarp is needed, and the town plans to revise this law to define a tarp as any material that will effectively cover a load of trash. As mentioned in the article, this could include a bed sheet or netting, as long as the material prevents any trash from being blown out.

While using the proper material when transporting trash is an issue, a more prominent issue is how the load, including the “tarp” is being secured. With a traditional dump or flatbed truck, when a tarp isn’t properly secured, the tarp can come loose, thus exposing the load to moisture, or it can experience wind whip, which decreases the lifespan of a tarp. When residents of Anderson or any Southern town with a similar issue plan to use a tarp or similar material, they should secure it, so that the material doesn’t come loose and allow trash to fly out.

By taking a look on the website for Real Deal Brazil, they claim that their hats are made from recycled truck tarps that are given to them once truck companied dispose of their tarps. To reduce their carbon footprint somewhat, they ship their product to the United States by boat – apparently, this takes only two days. But the feature of this hat is its composition of truck tarps, which, from looking at various pictures on the website, appear to be canvas tarps, as opposed to the traditional polyethylene tarps. Truck tarps, however, can include both poly and canvas tarps, as well as mesh tarps, depending on the materials transported.

For these hats, the canvas makes more sense in terms of style, as opposed to the use on polyethylene, as seen on the recycled products by Swiss fashion company Freitag which, a few weeks ago, was looking for various colored tarps. The website has features to customize one of these recycled tarp hats by adding a worn, frayed look to the tarp material (with an old canvas tarp, this isn’t hard to do) or patches also made from the same recycled material.

Essentially, using a tarp or a net to prevent garbage from being blown about is much like using a truck tarp on a larger vehicle. Although some states, as mentioned in previous posts, have different regulations regarding when to use truck tarps, with some states stating that a tarp isn’t necessary if the load is one foot below the edge of the truck, having a polyethylene or mesh tarp in place prevents particles of all sizes – from sand to trash – from blowing out of the vehicle. Essentially the unsecured load law in West Virginia is much like a tarp law, only the material covering the load doesn’t always need to be a tarp.

A tarp gives the most effective protection out of the three options mentioned in the article: tarps, netting, and cardboard. When using a tarp with a truck, both mesh and poly tarps can be used with different types of materials. When the transported materials can’t be exposed to water, such as asphalt, a poly tarp fully secured is ideal, while material that can be exposed to some water or moisture, such as gravel or sand, can be protected with a mesh tarp.

(3) Any vehicle operating on a paved public highway with a load of dirt, sand, or gravel susceptible to being dropped, spilled, leaked, or otherwise escaping therefrom shall be covered so as to prevent spillage. Covering of such loads is not required if six inches of freeboard is maintained within the bed.

(7)(a)(i) A person is guilty of failure to secure a load in the first degree if he or she, with criminal negligence, fails to secure a load or part of a load to his or her vehicle in compliance with subsection (1), (2), or (3) of this section and causes substantial bodily harm to another.

The rest of the rules specific to Washington state can be read on the blog post here.

One key point in reading these regulations for covering a truck load is that how to or what to cover the load with isn’t specified. As with truck tarps, some materials need waterproof covering, while others just simply need a cover to not spill out of the truck. Two common types of truck tarps are mesh tarps and poly tarps, both of which can be applied manually or by a roll-on mechanism. While in the case of Washington state a load six inches below the edge of the truck doesn’t need to be covered, not covering materials still has a risk of having materials fly out. Using even a light or mesh tarp can be beneficial in keeping the materials inside the truck.

A mesh tarp is used typically with materials or objects that do need some protection but can be exposed to some sunlight and water. One common use for a mesh tarp is as a truck tarp, and that can be as a flatbed truck tarp or as a dump truck tarp. Mesh tarps are used to transport materials like sand and gravel that can be exposed to sun and water, while materials that need protection from water are often covered with a polyethylene tarp.

A mesh tarp can be used around the home as a canopy and as a garden tarp – both of which would utilize a steel canopy frame. As a garden tarp, a mesh tarp is beneficial for outdoor plants that require only a small amount of sunlight. This can be for ferns, holly, bleeding hearts, and other outdoor plants that require shade to grow. As an outdoor canopy, a mesh tarp can be used instead of a polyester or polyethylene covering for a tent to allow some sunlight and air in but will still provide shade.

Mesh tarps are further used in the construction industry much like a truck tarp. But outside of simply covering materials that can be exposed to water, a heavy duty mesh tarp is used as a privacy fence tarp. This type of mesh tarp is constructed out of the came polypropylene knit as an ordinary mesh tarp, only the material blocks 80 percent of sunlight. These tarps typically line the fence of a construction site to keep materials from blowing out, which is particularly important for construction sites directly next to the sidewalk in urban areas. These privacy fence tarps are six feet tall and fifty feet long, and this size makes them ideal for protecting pedestrians and lining the edge of a fence.

In 2008, North Carolina Department of Transportation picked up 384,540 pounds of waste from highways just in Iredell County and the free tarps are expected to reduce this amount of litter. If the tarp is applied properly, it should be able to prevent trash from flying out of a car or pickup truck.

Applying a tarp to the back of a car or pickup truck is much like applying a truck tarp but to a smaller vehicle and works in the same type of principle. When a tarp is applied to a truck, it is secured along the back, either manually by workers or automatically by the truck, and shouldn’t be too loose or too tight. A tarp that is too loose can experience wind whip and tear and, in some cases, actually let loose the materials being carried. On the other hand, when a tarp is too tight, it can tear or become strained, thus reducing its lifespan, in transit.

As with the article from Arkansas posted previously about proposed legislation requiring all trucks transporting materials, this recent article is a step in the right direction in the use of tarps to protect the environment from litter and motorists from trash potentially hitting and damaging a car window and passengers.

While the bill has been proposed regularly since 2001 and rejected by the state House, it is up again for Arkansas state Senate and House vote. The purpose of the bill is to protect cars behind trucks carrying large loads of small materials that can easily be blown away by the wind and hit passing or behind cars’ windows and cause scratches or worse damage – particularly if a car’s window is open.

One of the uses of a tarp is to protect a truck load and can easily be put on either manually or automatically by the truck itself. The tarp can be of any material, but it should be of a lightweight but still heavy duty material that all workers can lift. For materials that can be exposed to water, such as with sand and gravel in the case of this news story, a mesh tarp would be appropriate. If the transported material needs to be protected from water during travel, a vinyl or polyethylene tarp is a better choice for a truck tarp. In addition, a truck tarp needs to be of a specific size to fit the load of the truck, and a tarp being used on a truck should have an additional row of D-rings.

How should workers put on a truck tarp? The workers should grip onto the tarp and not just the ropes to apply it and remove it. When the tarp is put over the load, the winch straps are only over the load and the tarp is on top of the straps. The tarp shouldn’t be too loose, as it would experience wind whip and tear, but not too tight, either, as this will cause strain in the material. In addition, the truck tarp should be checked regularly for tears – as it would be useless then. To be checked for tears or holes, the tarp should be laid on a flat surface to be examined for holes, rips, and tripping hazards. Sharps corners should also be padded, with foam, cardboard, and carpet pads protection during travel.

To prevent flying gravel and sand particles during transport, a truck tarp is a logical solution to not only protect the transported materials from the elements but to protect the motorists from flying particles, as well.