The principle of unit loads

Goods should be kept together in form of a transport unit adapted to all present vehicles and handling equipment.

The unit should be formed as early as possible and be broken as late as possible in the material flow.

Preferably should be formed at the consignor ’s, ad broken at the consignee ’s.

Unit loadsUnit loads are parts of a shipment that can be treated as a single unit during cargo handling and transportation.

The size or dimensions of the unit load can vary according to requirements and to the means of transport and packaging container available.

To optimize the cargo handling, transport and storage processes, standardization of unit loads is desirable.

The most common unit loads are pallets and components with bases that resemble pallets, such as pallet, etc.

The most important properties of a unit load are that it can be loaded to ensure a tight fit, its modularity and its stability, the last of which ensures that it can be stowed safely and will not be damaged by load securing measures.

Characteristics of an unit load

• Large as possible

• Formed as early as possible

• Broken as late as possible

• Be stable and rough

• Be able to be handled by all equipment in the transport chain

Benefits of using unit loads

• Simpler, faster and cheaper trans-shipments between transport modes

• Reduced terminal times for vehicles leading to better resource utilisation

• Less goods damage and costs for wrapping

• Easier to choose load unit type

• Easier document handling

Costs of using unit loads

• Need for technical adaptation

• Need for larger and more costly transhipment equipment

• Economies of scale cause less flexibility

• Extra costs for unit loads, empty positioning and returning

Unitizing Cargo

Unitizing is the assembly of one or more items into a compact load, secured together and provided with skids and cleats for ease of handling.

Provide water damage protection by using plastic shrink wrap or stretch wrap on individual items, before assembly into unit load, or on entire load.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) publishes a guide to aid manufacturers, consumers and the general public in selecting unit-load and transport-package sizes to efficiently fit within truck trailers, intermodal containers, or railroad box-cars.

Recommended max weight

manual handling

Handling costs

Attività della movimentazione

Fasi

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ispezione O D

Mosso con carrello a forche O D 12

stoccaggio O D

Mosso con carrello a forche O D 16

Full loads and parcels

simple operationslow entry barrier

more difficult operations

consolidation in terminalsrequires a network

large economies of scalespeed is essential

Unit loads

Container Container capacities are stated in terms of twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU).

Swap body

Semi-trailer

Roll-on frame

The module of 600 x 400 mm

The modular design of the pallet system

Moving floor to allow external sequence loading (Moving deck)

Container variants

ISOcontainer

A swap body (Cassa mobile)

A swap body frame

The principle of swap-bodies

Handling principles for roll-onframes with hook exchangers

Load carrier

in terminal on the road on railways at the sea

semi-trailer

swap-body

container

Incorrect load distribution

Heavy braking

Loading guide

The stability of the goods

The ratio a/hs, whether the unit has been scotched or not, shall be equal to or higher than 0.6 longitudinally and the ratio b/hs shall be equal to or higher than 0.5 transversely.

If the load is subjected to wind (loading on a flat), the ratio b/hs shall be equal to or higher than 0,7.