Most of the Piggybacked trailers that I have seen have a Railroad reporting mark. (UPSZ , TIPZ etc…).
But not every piggyback trailer has them. If they are not required, what is the advantage for having them? Also, are there any other restrictions as to which semi-trailers can be piggy-backed?
Thanks Rich
EVERY trailer has a reporting mark as that is the way it is billed & for the customer to trace it. Sorry to say you must have a missed a few along the way
Containers, either in international or domestic service, will have a reporting mark ending in U. Trailers, including container skeletons and Roadrailers, will have a Z reporting mark.
Well, if they only had numbers and no letters, they would quickly run out of numbers…and THAT would be a real mess, multiple trailers running around with the same numbers.
Yes they all need to be billed with reporting marks, but you are correct that some trailers do not have any letters on them. Most of UPS’s 28 foot pups are this way, as are a few of UPS’s bigger trailers, and a few other oddballs I’ve seen such as Old Dominion pups and some rather fetching purple trailers full of cookies that came into our yard a few weeks ago. (We hoped against hope that one of the cookie trailers would have had its seal broken, but no such luck. [;)] ) We generally use NONZ as the reporting marks for these, and while I’ve never come across a conflict where two different NONZ trailers have the same number, it could happen, and it would probably cause a nice headache. Schneider trailers also have no reporting marks on them but they use SNLZ – it’s just not displayed on the trailer.
Trailer reporting marks generally do end in Z (one exception I can think of offhand is the Martrac trailers we get from UPS; the reporting marks on those are MAR). Containers almost always end in U although I’ve seen some American President Lines containers that have APLS markings. Chassis usually end in Z but it’s not uncommon to see chassis with reporting marks ending in C (and there are a couple other letters that chassis reporting marks can end with but I rarely if ever see them and can’t recall right now what they are).
Probably more than you really wanted to know???
REAZ? In 2006? Railway Express Agency Z?
Yes, I see REAZ trailers from time to time, if that’s what you’re asking. I didn’t know that was the origin of those markings, though.
Thanks Nora
The Schneider trailers are the one’s that I don’t see any letters on.
If they don’t display it on the trailer, then where do they?
Rich
It’s just one of those facts that fill up the brains of intermodal clerks and push all the useful information out. [:)] We just know that any Schneider trailer that arrives is going to be an SNLZ…a lot of the drivers don’t even know. It’s not really important to them, but WE need the letters so we can get those trailers in and out of the yard and matched up with their billing.
Yes, REAZ is directly descended from Railway Express Agency, though the marks have long been owned by, I believe, TransAmerica.
Anybody know what FSTZ is? UPS uses a lot of their trailers…
When I worked for a LTL trucking company many years ago, we would on occasion use Conrail from Columbus, Toledo, and Cleveland into New England. When we used our our equipment, CR would book then trailer by the same four-letter identification code assigned to all carriers, followed by our out identifcation number. Unlike rail equipment, it was not required to end in a “Z” or “U”
Examples…
Overnight Transportation = OVNT
Preston = PRES
Northwest Transportort - NWTP
St. Johnsbury Trucking Company - SJTC
Thus, St. Johnsbury’s trailer # 4566R could be tracked in the CR system with SJTC4556R
Fuzzybroken
FSTZ is the reporting mark for Fastrac Intermodal LLC.
Rich
catfood
Thanks, that makes a lot of sense.
Rich
Railway Express had a trailer leasing subsidiary known as Realco. (REA Leasing Company) Its trailers were marked REAZ. The subsidiary was sold to TransAmerica which retained the reporting mark.
We used to handle private trailers owned by Sunbeam, an appliance manufacturer. They didn’t number their trailers, they named them. One name I remember was “Sue”. The clerk sent the load out as SUEZ000001 or something like that. It worked. We kept track of the load.
As a note, I’ve got an long time former neighbor who received a Sunbeam toaster for her wedding in 1948. It’s built like a tank and is still going strong 58 years latter. She’s never replaced it. She’s had no need to.