A roll trailer is a trailer platform that requires towing by a powered vehicle. It is commonly used for the transport of heavy static goods and materials in the maritime shipping industry. Roll trailers are similar to shipping flat racks containers, however, they have a set of rear wheels.

Overview

Roll trailers are a common equipment used in

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

s and on board of

roll-on/roll-off Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...

ships, to facilitate the shipping of unmovable commodities and

oversize load In road transport, an oversize load (or overweight load) is a load that exceeds the standard or ordinary legal size and/or weight limits for a truck to convey on a specified portion of road, highway, or other transport infrastructure, such as a ...

from one port to another. Standard lengths of roll trailers are , in line with

twenty-foot equivalent unit The twenty-foot equivalent unit (abbreviated TEU or teu) is an inexact unit of cargo capacity, often used for container ships and container ports.Rowlett, 2004. It is based on the volume of a intermodal container, a standard-sized metal box whic ...

shipping containers, but can also be found in lengths of . The standard payloads of roll trailers are 80 or 100 tons, and the tare of the trailer varies from 7 to 10 tons. The trailer has a

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

structure and a

hardwood Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from ...

surface, plus a front pocket for towing by tugmaster gooseneck, and side handles for applying lashing hooks.

Operations

Goods are usually placed on roll trailers by

forklift A forklift (also called lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th century by various c ...

or shore crane, secured with lashing or chains, and then towed on/off board via tugmaster

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...

. When empty, they can be stacked like

shipping containers A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated boxes. In the context of ...

. Every trailer has a unique identification number stamped on sides, composed of four letters and seven digits, directly related to the manufacturer company abbreviation name, the payload capacity and its length size. All the main

shipping line A shipping line or shipping company is a company whose line of business is ownership and operation of ships. Shipping companies provide a method of distinguishing ships by different kinds of cargo: # Bulk cargo is a type of special cargo that is ...

s have an owned fleet of roll trailers available to be offered to shippers for moving heavy static cargo. Additionally, all main roll trailers manufacturers tend to lease extra equipment during peak times, by charging a daily hire fee to the shipping lines. Once in the

, after a short "free time" period, roll trailers are subject to

demurrage The term "demurrage" from Old French ''demeurage'', from ''demeurer'' – to linger, tarry – originated in vessel chartering and referred to the period when the charterer remained in possession of the vessel after the period normally allowed ...

charges, to cover storage and detention fees and to ensure consignees swiftly unload their cargo, temporary positioned on the shipping line's trailers during the sea passage.
As per standard practice, and opposite to shipping containers, roll trailers are not permitted to exit the ports, with receivers requested to collect their goods inside the terminals.

Gallery

File:Mafi carrying cable reels.JPG,

Cable reel A cable reel is a round, drum-shaped object such as a spool used to carry various types of electrical wires. Cable reels, which can also be termed as drums, have been used for many years to transport electric cables, fiber optic cables and w ...

s transport File:Mafi carrying crate.JPG,

Crate A crate is a large shipping container, often made of wood, typically used to transport or store large, heavy items. Steel and aluminium crates are also used. Specialized crates were designed for specific products, and were often made to be reusa ...

carriage File:Tandem mafi.JPG,

Tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

operation

References

{{Reflist Trailers Articulated vehicles Freight transport

Overview

Operations

Gallery

See also

References