Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
Take a look at the next few freight trains you see. There are a lot of actual trailers being shipped (with wheels & all), as well as containers.
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Containers are made so they can just be dropped onto a bare frame with existing wheels, lights, etc for road use. I'm not saying pure trailers aren't loaded onto freight cars too, but wheel frames are put under containers all the time.
But the point I was making was although it would be theoretically more efficient to ship just trailers (or containers), the trucking industry isn't set up that way. Truckers get paid by the mile so its hard to make enough money on short-hauls to survive. Plus the logistics and traffic jam of getting 500 tractors under the right 500 trailers when a train comes in would be enormous. Better to just let the truckers drive off the train and into the road system.