Pacer Stack Train 53’ containers do go international, we used to receive them big blue bast**** full of Chinese, Mexican and 4 others foreign countries toilets, stacked to the ceiling, how they got them on there was truely amazing. We allways had fun getting them out.
I drove for JB Hunt from Nov 1995 to Jan 2001. During that time, they went to great effort to separate their intermodal and OTR van traffic, such that an OTR driver could not be hooked to a container for an OTR load. Note how you see very few road tractors pulling containers, and no vans on the train. After JB started acquiring air ride trailers in the late 90s, they were quite emphatic that its vans not go by rail, because the handling and jostling in transit would damage the air ride suspension gear. When I started there, they had a fleet of approximately 5000 each 48 and 53 foot vans, and about 7000 48 foot, and 9000 53 foot containers. In the last three or four years, all the 48 foot boxes have been retired, except for some 48 foot vans in Dedicated Contract Services. They have also acquired approximately 8000 53 foot containers since 2001. It is quite unlikely that they are about to abandon containerized freight. The economics don’t support such a move, given the recent investment, and the recent spike in fuel prices, though diesel has been high for a much longer time than gasoline. Additionally, the cost of moving the box by rail is much cheaper than OTR, especially when double stacked.
The chassis issue has, to my knowledge, never been a problem. I don’t recall ever seeing any other box on a JB chassis, or a JB chassis on another company’s chassis. If I am not mistaken, JB’s chassis are not compatible with other containers, as the locking pins on the corners are all in fixed position for a 102" box, where the others mate with a 96" box. In some intermodal yards, JB has its own section, and its boxes do not mix with other trailers/containers.
53 foot trailers started to appear as a result of the Surface Trasnportation Assistance Act(STAA) of 1982. This established a National Network of highways, which includes almost all of the Interstate system, and other roads as designated by the states. It allowed 53 foot, 102" wide trailers on this national network, along with sufficient acces
I noted this morning while waiting for a UP stack train to clear crossing carrying mostly Hanjin and COSCO(China Ocean Shipping Co.) that there were quite a few 45 ft Hanjin boxes telling me that they are, indeed, in international service. Without major ship modifications, these would all have to be “top of stack” loading on board.
I haven’t had the opportunity to get to the ports of Long Beach/Los Angeles in several years to look at ship loadings and I understand that it has gotten so large and so busy that it is nearly impossible to get a good look at the larger container operations.
And a ship’s capacity is rated in standard 20 foot containers.