Straddle Carrier
A Straddle Carrier is a tall, self-propelled terminal machine that straddles a container — driving over it on its legs — to lift, carry and stack it. Highly mobile, it can pick a box from under a quay crane, transport it across the yard, and stack it two, three or four high, all without needing a separate crane, making it a flexible workhorse of many container terminals.
Straddle carriers give a terminal a good balance of speed, flexibility and stacking density, and can shuttle containers directly between the quay, the yard and the truck lanes. They compete with other yard-handling systems such as rubber-tyred gantry cranes (RTGs) and reach stackers, each suiting different yard layouts and volumes. Their deployment, moves and maintenance are directed by the terminal operating system and are a key driver of yard productivity.
How a terminal moves and stacks boxes in the yard largely decides its productivity — and the straddle carrier is one of the main ways it's done, prized for doing the carry and the stack in one flexible machine. Understanding straddles versus RTGs and reach stackers is understanding how a container yard actually works.
What does a straddle carrier do?
It straddles, lifts, carries and stacks containers within the terminal, moving them between the quay, yard and trucks without a separate crane.
How is a straddle carrier different from an RTG?
A straddle carrier both carries and stacks and is highly mobile; an RTG is a gantry crane that stacks containers in fixed yard blocks.