The Box Containing the Freight

The core of the business is different from the point of view of the worker. For the drivers, the most important is the number of miles. For the operators, and trucking business people, the most important is the freight.  The big question to answer in order to succeed in this field is how to choose the right trailer for the freight. So, the trailer becomes an important matter that deserves to be studied.

The trailer is the second part of the tractor-trailer but the reason to be in the trucking business. Inside, it can take the most varied sort of freight, from fresh vegetables, high dangerous chemicals, from parts of appliances to entire cars. There is a type of trailer that fits with the necessity of the freight.

First, trailers could be classified by the size or by the axles. A semitrailer is a smaller trailer supported by a fifth wheel. The simple trailer has a single set of axles and the full trailer is supported by axles at the front and it is commonly used for the trucking shipments.

The trailer for freight is also classified by the freight it can contain. There are trailers to haul agricultural crop produce such as corn, grains or even live stock. There are trailers made for the wood and chip, trailers that contains 5 to 9 cars. Also, there are trailers especially made for hazardous material like the asphalt tanks, industrial gas or petroleum products tanks.

But the most common way to recognize the trailers is by their shapes. The flat bed trailer, for example is like its name: a wood or steel long bed in which wood to construction materials can be hauled . The dump trailers that have the capacity of unload the freight by themselves. And the most commonly used trailer in United States: the van.

This simple design makes up of almost 42% of all trailers in the country. A van could be used for dry freight (dry vans), for refrigerated freight (reefers) or simply for general products like furniture.

Inside these basic vans, the operator, business man and customer all have different options. The reefers are usually used and adjusted according to the necessity of the freight. Hauling fresh food is the frequent use of reefers. 

About the simple vans, there is the type of container vans, which are the trailers made not only to fit with the truck but to travel by railroad and by ship. Also some vans could have different doors in function to the load and unload processes. There are side curtain doors, or roll back doors that can be used for different shipments.

The tankers are the kings in hazardous material matter. These can also haul products like milk and water. The tanks are specialized in petroleum and chemicals products, which need special treatment, permission and even special schedules to be transported. 

Each one of these trailers provides singular ways to work and ways to earn profits. Some freight is sent a long way to travel like the containers that usually must be delivered on rail centers or docks. To deliver fresh food or milk and water requires rigorous cleaning and temperatures, the flatbed generally hauls dangerous and big pieces of wood, construction and machines and it is considered as one of the riskiest types of trailers for the truck driver.     

It is very important to get an advantage in the trucking field by knowing how and for what work the trailer is made to do. A trailer used the wrong way, for under or over weight on the load, could shorten the life of the trailer. It could loose a shipment and of course, a client, or even put the life of the truck driver and other people in danger because of the mishandling of the trailer function.