The bay is rarely flat
Transfer floors and yard aprons slope so water and debris move. A truck that felt parked in your driveway will creep when you climb in the bed and shift a stump. Set the parking brake every time, and put a chock or a solid block in front of a tire on the downhill side before you touch a strap. The chock is there because brakes get released by habit, by a passenger, or by a bump against the shifter. A chock does not care. Use a real chock or a squared block that cannot kick out, not a round log and not a brick standing on its narrow face. This is the order: stop, brake, chock, then unstrap. Reversing that order is how a load and a truck move together.
Cargo shifts when the strap lets go
A strap under tension is holding weight uphill. When you release it, that weight may step downhill, into you or into the tailgate. Stand uphill of the piece, or to the side, not in the slide path. Loosen one strap, see if the load moves, and then loosen the next. Do not throw all the ratchets at once because you are in a hurry and the queue is behind you. If the truck is hitched to a trailer, the trailer needs the brake and a chock too. A trailer that rolls off a jack while you are in the bed is a separate accident from the one the truck brake prevented. Keep people out of the gap between the truck and the trailer while any strap is coming off.
Chocks come off last
Unload the cargo, close the tailgate, and check that nobody is still using the truck as a brake for a piece of debris. Then remove the chock and give it a home in the bed where it cannot roll under the pedals on the way out. Leaving the chock on the ground is how the next driver in that bay runs it over and how you lose the only block you owned. If the attendant asks you to move before you are done, set the brake again after the move and chock again. The slope did not go away because you moved ten feet. The same order applies at home when you unstrap a load you brought back because the site refused it. The driveway has a slope too.
Before you go
- Stop, set the parking brake, and chock a tire on the downhill side.
- Only then loosen straps, one at a time, standing out of the slide path.
- Chock a trailer as well if you are unloading one.
- Remove the chock only after the load is off and the tailgate is closed.
Popping every ratchet while the truck sits unchocked on a sloped tipping floor.
Questions people ask
Is the parking brake enough?
Use it, and still chock. A brake can be released by a snag or a bad habit. The chock is the backup that does not depend on the pedal.
What if I have no chock?
Use a squared block of wood that cannot roll, set firmly against the tire. A round piece of firewood is a wheel, not a chock.
Search Dumpmapper by ZIP code or city, then call the site before you load the truck. Hours and accepted materials change.