The most mobile assets in logistics have no engine.
Container, swap body, craneable semi-trailer: they switch between truck, train and ship without anyone touching the cargo.
What that means: investing in transport and logistics does not require buying a haulier. The loading unit itself is the asset – standardised, mobile and favoured by law in combined transport.
Three loading units carry combined transport
Each is built for a different bottleneck: pallet width, stackability or height.
Class C swap body
7,450 or 7,820 mm long, 2,550 mm wide – wide enough for two Euro pallets side by side. 18 or 19 pallets. Standardised under EN 284.
40' high cube container
12,192 × 2,438 × 2,896 mm, 76.3 m³. ISO code 45G1. Approved under the CSC, with a defined stacking weight.
Craneable semi-trailer
Up to 4.00{NB}m high. To fit on rail, lines are to carry it loaded at least 27{NB}cm above the top of rail.
What combined transport is allowed to do
What that means: these advantages only apply when the loading unit actually changes between road and rail, inland or sea port. They give combined transport room that pure road haulage does not have.
Picks and shovels
In the Klondike gold rush, the outfitters earned more reliably than the prospectors. What that means for wagons, locomotives and loading units in the federal and EU network programme.
Frequently asked questions
What is combined transport?
The loading unit makes the main leg by rail, inland waterway or sea. Only the pre- and on-carriage between terminal and customer runs by road. The cargo itself stays in the unit.
How heavy may a truck be in combined transport?
Up to 44 t when a three-axle tractor with a two- or three-axle semi-trailer carries containers or swap bodies of up to 45 feet. For road legs to and from a ship this applies only up to 150 km by road (StVZO § 34(6)).
Does the Sunday driving ban apply?
Not to rail-road combined transport to the nearest suitable station up to 200 km, and not to port-road transport within a 150 km radius (StVO § 30(3)).
Is vehicle tax due for pre- and on-carriage?
No, if the vehicle is used exclusively for it and is externally recognisable as such. This covers containers of 5 m³ or more, swap bodies and semi-trailers (KraftStG § 3 no. 9).
What distinguishes a container from a swap body?
The ISO container is 2,438 mm wide and approved for stacking on ships and in terminals. The class C swap body is 2,550 mm wide, i.e. pallet-wide, built to EN 284, non-stackable and stands on its own landing legs: the truck drops it without a crane.
What does the EU plan for rail?
By end-2040, 740 m freight trains are to run on the extended core network without special permission. By end-2050 the comprehensive network is to be fully electrified and allow 22.5 t axle load (Regulation (EU) 2024/1679).
How are loading units financed?
By purchase or lease. Container lessors offer established forms, from short-tenor framework agreements and long-term leases to lease purchase.
What does the Klondike gold rush have to do with logistics?
Of more than 100,000 who set out, no more than 40,000 reached Dawson City, and many went home broke. Outfitters and carriers earned more reliably: the National Park Service writes that in Dawson City and Seattle more fortunes were made off miners than by mining.
How much of the container fleet do lessors own?
About 47% of the global fleet at end-2025, according to the lessor Triton's estimate in its annual report (Form 20-F).