EUMOS, the European Safe Logistics Association, today launched the revision of its recognized “test method for load unit rigidity” standard ensuring cargo packed on a Cargo Transport Unit (CTU) will travel even more safely from origin to destination. The new EUMOS 40509:2020 will provide the most precise results in relation to any standard regarding load rigidity developed in the past by adding new evaluation elements with respect to the ones foreseen by the original standard EUMOS 40509 from 2012.

Angel David Hernandez, President of EUMOS, states “We are proud to have made this important contribution to increase the safety of almost 10 billion load units moved along Europe every year by maximizing the effects of our test methods. With the new test criteria we will be able to more precisely calculate how to secure the load on a CTU in order to avoid loose or unstable parts causing serious accidents which – according to our estimates – could have affected 100.000 EU citizens´ lives or health in the course of the next decade.”

EUMOS 40509 is included into the provisions on cargo securing of the EU Directive on Roadworthiness of Technical Roadside Inspections 2014/47/EU as the standard applicable to transport packaging,. EUMOS members are committed to contribute with its work on the increase of logistics safety to the objectives set out in the framework of the EU Initiative for Road Safety and to gradually reducing road fatalities and bringing them down to zero by 2050. EUMOS 40509 describes a dynamic test method to evaluate the rigidity of a load unit. The main focus of the revision has been to define the equipment requirements to measure the rigidity of a load unit on an acceleration bench adding new elements to the evaluation method for more precise results while keeping the nature of the standard unchanged. Dr. Manuel Garcia-Romeu, heading the working group for the review, trusts this standard will be able to satisfy the expected results after having been elaborated by a group of highest-level cargo securing experts uniting their individual expertises from different perspectives in order to ensure maximum safety.

EUMOS 40509:2020 is available for purchase online at the Belgian Bureau of Standardisation – the organization in charge of the sales of all EUMOS standards – here