A special transport vehicle for carrying containers. In the early days of container transportation, ordinary trucks were mostly used for transportation because the container load was small and the number was not large. Since the 1960s, with the rapid development of container transportation, countries have successively developed vehicles specifically for transporting containers. The size of the loading part of the container vehicle is determined according to the standard container size, and a twist lock device for fixing the container is provided at the position corresponding to the four corners of the bottom of the container.
Container vehicles usually adopt the combination of car trains. This combination includes semi-trailer, full-trailer and double-trailer, among which semi-trailer car trains are the majority.
The semi-trailers that make up the container car train are of two types: flatbed and skeleton. The loading part of the flatbed semi-trailer is a flatbed cargo platform, which can be used to transport containers and ordinary long and large goods, and the vehicle has a high efficiency of use. The loading part of the skeleton semi-trailer is a chassis frame without a cargo platform. After the container is loaded on the vehicle and fixed by the twist lock device, it also becomes a strength member of the semi-trailer. Skeleton semi-trailers can only be used to transport containers. It has the advantages of small dead weight, simple structure and convenient maintenance.
According to the structural form, container semi-trailers are divided into two types: straight-frame type and gooseneck type. Straight-frame semi-trailers are suitable for transporting containers with flat bottom structures; gooseneck semi-trailers are specially designed for transporting containers with grooved bottom structures, which can reduce the loading height.