Trailer (Road Haulage)
A Trailer is the wheeled, un-powered unit towed by a truck (tractor unit) to carry cargo by road. In containerised logistics the key type is the chassis (skeletal trailer), onto which a container is mounted for its road leg between port, depot and door. Other types include curtain-siders, flatbeds, box trailers and refrigerated (reefer) trailers for non-containerised road freight.
Trailers are central to drayage and inland movement — the first and last mile that connects the sea or rail leg to the customer. Their availability, positioning and turnaround directly affect whether containers move on time, and trailer/chassis shortages are a recurring cause of port and inland congestion. In roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) shipping, loaded trailers are driven straight on and off the vessel, avoiding container handling altogether.
A container's sea voyage is worthless if there's no trailer to move it from the port — and chassis shortages have stranded boxes and jammed terminals in every major supply-chain crunch. The trailer is the humble link that turns port throughput into delivered cargo, which is why fleet, chassis and turnaround management matter as much as the ocean leg.
What is a container chassis?
A skeletal trailer designed to carry a shipping container by road between the port, depot and final destination.
How do trailers relate to RoRo shipping?
In roll-on/roll-off shipping, loaded trailers are driven directly on and off the vessel, so the cargo never needs container handling.