Once the container is unloaded, the flat-bed can be loaded with freight for the return trip. With the demountable truck body system, straight-trucks can switch between multiple cargo bodies, such as van, curtain-side or flat-bed. The ICAF enables a demountable, flat-bed body to serve as a container transporter, allowing logistics professionals to use inexpensive commercial shipping containers with straight-trucks.
The company describes how the system works: A straight-truck demounts an empty van body at a facility’s loading dock and mounts an ICAF-equipped, flat-bed body pre-loaded with a shipping container. The truck transports the container to its destination, where it is unloaded. While there, freight is loaded onto the flat-bed for the return trip to the facility. Upon returning to the facility, the flat-bed is demounted, and the truck mounts the now fully loaded van body that was left at the dock in the morning and departs to make another delivery.
Without the demountable system, this scenario requires three trucks: a van body, a container truck and a flat bed, according to the company. The demountable system accomplishes it with one truck and two bodies.
The ICAF is built into the flat-bed’s body, and a container can be locked down by turning a lever under each of the container’s corners. The demountable system consists of a hydraulic lifting and lock-down mechanism installed onto the straight-truck’s chassis to facilitate swapping bodies, and galvanized-steel, retractable legs built into the base-frame of each body, allowing it to stand on its own and be loaded independent of the truck.
