Container Trailer

a container with wheels and pneumatic truck tires. It is used for mixed (combined) truck-rail, truck-ship, or truck-ship-rail transport.

Container trailers are usually made like truck semitrailers, with a closed or open body (universal or specialized), a volume of at least 15 cu m, and a carrying capacity of 6 to 30 tons. Container trailers can be towed on highways; and they are also loaded and unloaded from railroad flatcars and special ships by truck tractors. The trailers have fixed or removable wheel assemblies with one, two, or three axles. Trailers with fixed wheels are secured on railroad flatcars by special devices; those with removable wheel assemblies usually are not fastened. One variant type of container trailer has an articulated body. Some types of transport vehicles can be adapted for highway and rail travel (with interchangeable railroad and truck wheels or with wheels having special steel bands with flanges for rail operation). Such vehicles are often called roadrailers.

The large-scale development of high-capacity container trans-port has demonstrated that container trailers are less economical and have poorer long-term prospects than containers.