I've been working on a VBA on-and-off for quite awhile. Eventually the owner decided to put the original motor on a shelf, and install a newer P125 motor for increased reliability and power. I built the motor up for him, and installed it in the scoot. Now it was time for it to return to its owner. He lives about an hour and a half drive from me, across several bridges and long highway stretches, so trucking it was the best answer.
I've seen too many scooters just leaned over in a truck, or tied with rope... if you do that, you're doing it wrong. Here's how I move scooters. First, I get my truck ready. Note: it helps to have a friend assist with loading, but I almost always end up going solo. I try to move my truck so that I have some sort of raised area behind the rear wheels. This makes the distance up to the rear gate much less. My old house had a nice curb, and it was super easy to load. As you can see in the photo above, my current joint doesn't have such a luxury, so I use a light rise in the street. I also point the truck down the hill, so as to use gravity to my advantage.
As you see, everything is set up, the ramp is obvious. Less obvious are the tie downs, which I have set on top of the edge of the truck bed, so I can reach them when I get the scooter up there.
I use ratcheting tie-downs, and I create my own "soft strap" system. I simply loop the strap through the "eye-hole" in the strap hook. You can see it pretty clearly above. As I get the strap on the scooter, it snugs up the strap on the handlebar without scratching anything.
Here you see the other part of the equation. I have some wood up against the front of the truck bed. This pushes the front tire back a bit from the end of the bed. If you don't do this, the front mudguard will mash against the truck. No fun for your paint.
Here we see the "soft-strap" system in action. Loop the strap across the headset of the scooter, and snug it up. Then, push the scooter down a bit to compress the front suspension. Then, start ratcheting the tie down to get it nice and tight. The goal here is to get the front suspension all the way compressed. You also want to get both sides of the headset even and straight. There is a danger with ratcheting tie-downs, however, you don't want to over-do it. You can put a lot of pressure on the headset, so the key here is to get everything very tight, but not TOO tight. Especially with Lambrettas, there is a danger that you could break the headset with too much pressure. I've never broken one, but I've heard of it happening. Just use your judgment.
Here you see the scooter all loaded up in the truck. Note that the front suspension is totally compressed. Also note the wood on the front tire pushing everything back. I don't have any straps on the back. The scooter won't move around, and I've never had a problem. However, if you feel nervous, go ahead and put a strap on the back.
Here's a view from the back. She's all ready to go!