The big family of shipping containers which has one side simplified the transportation of almost all types of cargoes has also paved a lot of indecision amongst shippers regarding their use, functionality, dimension and so on- as of which to choose. Unlike earlier, nowadays shipping companies and freight forwarders are found with immense confidence because of meeting your every requirement by presenting a wide array of equipment. Their list includes every container type- from dry van, pallet wide, side door, insulated to reefer. Amongst all, a container that has proved to be the prominent solution for the transportation of oversized cargoes is the Flat Rack. Yes, you heard it right. Where every container is posed to have a certain dimensional limitation, a flat rack comes up with no limitation to cargo size. What are flat rack containers? Flat Rack is a container type that is extensively used for the transportation of heavy loads usually extending the size of a standard container. They do not have a close and packed body, rather they have walls only on their shorter side (breadth side). The lengthwise sides do not have any walls or you can say the longer sides of a flat rack are open. Thus any cargo that goes beyond the size of a standard container like pipes, iron rod, machinery, can easily be loaded and transported. They are manufactured in two different sizes- 20’ and 40’ Flat racks. Usually, the dimension of these two differs only in length while the height and the width remain almost equal. Collapsible VS Non-Collapsible- Flat racks are also differential based on their flexibility- collapsible and non-collapsible. Did you know that a flat rack can also work for you as Platform containers? Wondering how? Well, this is because the walls on the two ends or on the shorter sides can be either fixed or folded. The one with fixed walls is called non-collapsible while the other with removable walls are the collapsible flat racks. In contrast to other containers, a group of collapsible flat racks can be stacked within a constraint space reducing the empty positioning cost. Which cargo finds the best suitability for a flat rack? Cargoes with unique dimensions that cannot be fit inside a closely packed box or the one requiring loading from the top or sides should be transported in a flat rack. For example- trucks, boats, machinery parts, construction equipment, etc that need to be shipped as a whole. Asserting the safety of cargoes and workers handling the heavy and oversized cargoes at the port, shipping lines impose some guidelines which must be followed while working with a flat rack container. Go through the guidelines given below as it stipulates how the cargoes should be handled, stowed, loaded and unloaded to meet the safety.
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