Shipping & Freight Definitions — cargo, logistics and transport terms from Apparel Search
A truck is a motor vehicle for transporting goods. Unlike automobiles, which usually have a unibody construction, most trucks are built around a strong frame called a chassis, with a cab for the driver and a tray, compartment or trailer connection for the load. Trucks come in every size, from an automobile-sized pickup truck to heavy highway semi-trailers and towering off-road mining trucks. The word truck is most common in American and Australian English; in British English the same vehicle is often called a lorry, a Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV), or a wagon. For the clothing industry the truck is the workhorse of distribution: it collects cartons from factories and ports, moves them between warehouses, and delivers finished garments to stores. Understanding the main size classes — light, medium and heavy — and the basic anatomy of chassis, cab, engine and drivetrain helps explain why different trucks are chosen for local delivery, regional haulage and long-haul freight.
The term is most commonly used in American English and Australian English to refer to what earlier was called a motor truck, and in British English is often called a lorry, a Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV), or (slang) a wagon (sometimes spelled waggon). This type of truck is a motor vehicle designed to carry goods, with a cab and a tray or compartment for carrying goods. Other languages have loanwords based on these terms, such as the Malay lori.
In Australia and New Zealand a small truck with an open tray is called a "ute" (utility vehicle).
"Pantechnicon" is a British word for a furniture removal van that has now fallen out of usage. It was originally coined in 1830 as the name of a craft shop or bazaar, in Motcomb Street in Belgravia, London. The shop soon closed down and the building was turned into a furniture warehouse, but the name was kept. Vehicles transporting furniture to and from the building, known as pantechnicon vans, soon came to be known simply as pantechnicons. A Pantech truck or van is a word derivation of pantechnicon commonly and currently used in Australia. Pantech refers to a truck and/or van with a freight hull made of (or converted to) hard panels (ie. chilled freight, removal vans etc).
The first internal combustion engine truck was built in 1898 by Gottlieb Daimler. Others, such as Peugeot, Benz and Renault also built theirs. Trucks of the era mostly used two-cylinder engines could have a carrying capacity 1500 to 2000 kg. In 1904, 700 heavy trucks were built in the United States, 1000 in 1907, 6000 in 1910 and 25000 in 1914.
After World War I, several advances were made: pneumatic tires replaced full rubber, electric starters, power brakes, 6 cylinder engines, closed cabs, electric lighting. The first modern semi-trailers also appeared. Touring car builders such as Ford and Renault entered the heavy truck market.
Although it had been invented in 1890, the Diesel engine was not common in trucks in Europe until the 1920s. In the United States, it took much longer for that type of engine to gain acceptance: gasoline engines were still in use on heavy trucks in the 1970s, while in Europe they had been completely replaced 20 years earlier.
Trucks have often had to pay higher tax rates, and have been subject to extensive regulation. Partly this is because they are bigger, heavier, and cause more wear and tear on roadways. This is one reason that UPS vehicles are called 'package cars', because that exempted them from certain tax-rates.
Rules are in place for tractor-trailer rigs, regulating how many hours a driver may be on the clock, and how much rest time/sleep time is necessary (11hrs on/10hrs off; 60hrs/7days; or 70hrs/8days). Many other rules apply. Violations of these laws are subject to large fines.
Notice that these hours are different in other jurisdictions. Always check up before you go. Types of trucks by size
Light trucks are car-sized (in the US, no more than 6,300 kg (13,000 lb.) and are used by individuals and commercial entities alike. They are comprised of:
Medium (or medium-duty) trucks are bigger than light but smaller than heavy trucks. In the US, they are defined as weighing between 6,300 kg (13,000 lb) and 15,000 kg (33,000 lbs.). For the UK the cut-off is 7.5 tonnes. Local delivery and public service (dump trucks, garbage trucks) are normally around this size.
Heavy trucks
Heavy trucks are the largest trucks allowed on the road. They are mostly used for long-haul purposes, often in semi-trailer configuration. In Australia many trailers are connected to make road trains.
Almost all trucks share a common contruction: they are made of a chassis, a cab, axles, suspension and wheels, an engine and a drivetrain.
A truck chassis consists of two parallel U-shaped beams held together by cross members. It is usually made of steel, but can be made (whole or in part) of aluminum for a lighter weight. The chassis is the main structure of the truck, and the other parts attach to it.
The cab is an enclosed space where the driver is seated. A sleeper is a compartment attached to the cab where the driver can rest while not driving. They can range from a simple 2 to 4 foot (0.6 to 1.2 m) bunk to a 12 foot (3.7 m) apartment-on-wheels. Modern cabs feature air conditioning, a good sound system, and ergonomic seats (often air suspended). There are a few possible cab configurations:
Trucks can use all sorts of engines. Small trucks such as SUVs or pickups, and even light medium-duty trucks in North America will use gasoline engines. Most heavier trucks use four stroke turbo intercooler diesel engines, although there are alternatives. Huge off-highway trucks use locomotive-type engines such as a V12 Detroit Diesel two stroke engine.
In the United States, highway trucks almost always use an engine built by a third party, such as CAT, Cummins, or Detroit Diesel. The only exceptions to this are Volvo Trucks and Mack Trucks, which are available with Volvo and Mack diesel engines, respectively, and Freightliner, which is a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler and are available with Mercedes-Benz and Detroit Diesel engines.
Small trucks use the same type of transmissions as cars. Bigger trucks often use manual transmissions, which must be built stronger to withstand the torque their engines make. Common North American setups include 10, 13 and 18 speeds. Automatic transmissions for heavy trucks are becoming more and more common, due to advances both in transmission and engine power.
The trend in Europe is that more new trucks are being bought with automatic transmissions. This may be due in part to lawsuits from drivers claiming that driving a manual transmission is damaging to their knees.
Quality among all heavy truck manufacturers in general is improving, however industry insiders will testify that the industry has a long way to go before they achieve the quality levels reached by automobile manufacturers. Part of the reason for this is that 75% of all trucks are custom specified. This works against efforts to streamline and automate the assembly line.
(major manufacturers ranked by 2003 sales)
The worldwide market share leader is DaimlerChrysler, with its Mercedes-Benz' commercial vehicle group with around a 22% global market share. Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicle's, with its Freightliner, Mercedes-Benz, Setra, Sterling (the old Ford Trucks), Western Star, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus (43%; Japan), and Hyundai Trucks (50%; South Korea), sold between 200,000 and a quarter of a million units worldwide that past few years.
Smaller fleet operators, specialized carriers, and owner operators tend to prefer Mack or Peterbilt and Kenworth products. Larger fleet operators and public agencies tend to prefer the lower cost Freightliners, Navistar, and Ford products. There are also regional preferences with truck drivers within the United States.
On the East Coast, where routes where traditionally shorter, and because the trucks were made there, many drivers preferred Mack Trucks. While on the West Coast, the drivers preferred Peterbilt, Kenworth, and Freightliner. White, built a new factory in California in the early 1960s, with long-haul trucking company Consolidated Freightways. The entity, which became White-Freightliner, then just Freightliner, catered directly to western fleets that wanted a lighter-aluminum cab and frame, and traveled longer-straighter distances without stopping. Drivers more concerned with safety than with fuel-economy preferred the heavier Peterbilts and Kenworths. But, Kenworth and Peterbilt, which had started out as heavy-duty trucks for hauling logs, forest products, and steel for shipyards on the West Coast, readily saw the need for these lighter long-distance trucks.
Iveco, MAN AG,
Mercedes-Benz Trucks,
PACCAR (DAF Trucks,
Leyland Trucks), Scania
AB, and Volvo Trucks (not to
be confused with Volvo Automotive,
which is now part of Ford
Motor Company), are the
leading truck manufacturers
in Western
Europe. In the
Eastern Europe,
koda,
Tatra and
GAZ are common, since
they were some of the "brands"
of the Soviet controlled
areas.
Heavy truck leading manufacturers (alphabetically]
Registrations of heavy trucks in South America (2002; % breakdown by manufacturer):
| The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ( Truck - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). 12/27/05 |
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| Clothing Industry |
Trucks in Clothing and Textile DistributionAlmost every garment travels by truck at least twice: once as fabric or components on the way into a factory, and once as finished clothing on the way out. Trucks handle the collection and delivery ends of journeys that mainly travel by ship or rail, and they handle whole journeys for domestic and regional distribution. A container arriving at a port is lifted onto a truck chassis for the trip to a distribution center. Cartons are then sorted and loaded onto smaller trucks for store delivery, while parcel and package vehicles carry individual orders to customers. The size of truck is matched to the job: light trucks and vans for small, frequent drops; medium trucks for local delivery routes; and heavy tractor units pulling semi-trailers for full loads between factories, ports and warehouses. Because garments are bulky relative to their weight, clothing loads often fill a truck by volume before they reach its weight limit. Load planning therefore counts cartons and cubic space as carefully as kilograms. Hanging-garment vehicles carry clothes on rails to avoid creasing, while boxed freight is stacked on pallets for fast loading by forklift. Delivery scheduling matters as well: stores and warehouses book receiving windows, drivers work under regulated hours with required rest periods, and missed slots can delay an entire route. Those operating rules are part of why freight is quoted not only by distance and weight, but also by load size — a full truckload, or a less-than-truckload consignment sharing space with other shippers' goods. Choosing and Describing a TruckWhen a shipper or carrier describes a truck, the details that matter are its size class and gross weight, its body type, and how the load is carried. Common body types include a flat tray, a rigid box body, a curtain-sided body that opens along the side for forklift loading, a refrigerated body for temperature-sensitive goods, and a tractor unit that couples to separate semi-trailers of different types. The cab layout — conventional, with the driver behind the engine, or cab over engine — affects overall length, visibility and maneuverability, which is why the two layouts dominate in different markets with different length rules. Engine and drivetrain choices follow the work. Smaller trucks commonly use gasoline engines and car-type transmissions, while heavier trucks generally use turbocharged diesel engines and stronger manual or increasingly automatic transmissions built to handle high torque over long distances. Many heavy trucks are custom specified rather than bought from a standard line, because axle configuration, body, engine and sleeper cab are all selected for a particular route and load. For a clothing business booking transport, the practical summary is simpler: state the number of cartons or pallets, the total weight and volume, whether garments hang or are boxed, and the collection and delivery points, and the carrier will match a truck of the right class and body to the load. Common QuestionsHow is a truck different from an automobile in construction?Most automobiles use unibody construction, while most trucks are built around a separate strong frame called a chassis. The cab, axles, suspension, engine and load area all attach to that chassis, which carries the weight of the goods. What are the three size classes of trucks?Light trucks are car-sized vehicles such as pickup trucks, vans and SUVs. Medium trucks are larger delivery and public-service vehicles. Heavy trucks are the largest road trucks, used mainly for long-haul work, often pulling semi-trailers. What is a cab over engine truck?A cab over engine, or flat nose, truck seats the driver on top of the front axle and the engine. The whole cab tilts forward for engine access. The design is common where overall vehicle length is strictly regulated, notably in Europe. More to ExploreMore from Apparel Search: Shipping & Freight Definitions | Clothing Industry Glossary | Fashion Terms | Apparel Search Home
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