THE DEFINITIVE TRUCKING SITE

September 2008

Moving loads as efficiently as possible from point A to point B is the essence of trucking and while it is arguably the truck tractor that captures the imagination of the ‘dieselhead’ buyer, it is the trailer that will bear the sheer weight of the payload. For this reason, having a thoroughbred prime-mover pulling an iron ‘donkey’ is invariably a (mis)match bound for failure. As such and contrary to common wisdom, in commercial truck transport it makes perfect sense to ‘put the cart before the horse’ – at least as far as deciding on the best trailer design for the application at hand.

Choosing a trailer suitable for a given task is by no means an exact science. South Africa has a unique operating environment, characterised by extremes, be that weather conditions, topography, terrain or road surfaces. What’s more, while local trailer manufacturers are among the best in the world, our country suffers a severe lack of skilled heavy-duty truck drivers, which merely compounds the challenges presented by Mother Nature. And then, as always, there’s road transport legislation to contend with. 

Traditionally, in the days before strictly enforced overload controls, the trailer buyer opted for ‘build-strength’ in the cart, foregoing a lighter tare mass. Today, with overload enforcement getting ever-more stringent, truck owners have to find new ways of optimising payload while remaining within the legal load limits. Typically, this is achieved by lowering vehicle tare mass and when it comes to combination rigs, it’s the trailer that gets the proverbial ‘chop’. 

With diesel price hikes pressurising an already margin-sensitive industry, transport operators have much to consider when choosing a truck and trailer. The same buying decisions that apply to the truck tractor need to be exercised when purchasing the trailer. 

In short, it’s all about turning a profit, about vehicle efficiency and uptime, dealer support and achieving lowest  lifecycle cost. In this Special Report on truck trailers, Paul Collings looks at the trailer fabrication industry highlighting its divergences, its offerings and its promises.