Better Engineering: Side Lift Crane vs. QuickLoadz

“I have seen another trailer that can move loaded shipping containers. They are expensive, what’s so special about QuickLoadz?”

Those would be the side lift cranes. Until recently, side lift crane trailers were the only way to move loaded sea shipping containers without external equipment. But side lift cranes have a lot of inherent limitations, which is why they have never entered the mainstream.

1. They are heavy. It takes a lot of steel to lift 40,000 lbs. five feet in the air.
2. They are dangerous. You are lifting 40,000 lbs. five feet in the air.
3. They are slow. Unfolding cranes, feet, chains, and straps is slow.
4. They require extensive operator training.
5. They are expensive. Lots of steel and hydraulics.
6. They are complicated.
7. They have high operating costs, replacement of straps and chains alone run to thousands a year.
8. They are limited in use to moving containers.
9. Most side lift cranes can only load or unload from one side.
10. They can’t be used with loading docks; there is a crane in the way. If you want access to the contents of the container, you have to unload it. If you want to use a loading dock, you have to unload the container, then load it back onto another bed that’s loading dock compatible. Not very useful.

In contrast to QuickLoadz:

1. It’s light, barely weighing more than a standard flat trailer.
2. Safe. We gently lift the container six inches off the ground, then slide underneath it.
3. Fast. QuickLoadz can load or unload a container in under three minutes.
4. Easy. The entire system is run from the driver’s smart phone without the driver leaving the cab of the truck.
5. Cheap. Half the cost of a side lift crane trailer.
6. Simple. Lift one side, hook the corners, and pull underneath.
7. Very low operating costs. No straps or chains to replace every three months.
8. Versatile. QuickLoadz is also a tow trailer and a flatbed.
9. QuickLoadz loads from either end, allowing for slotting.
10. QuickLoadz is fully freight compatible. Just back it up to a loading dock and open the doors.

With its low costs, versatility, safe and simple operation, QuickLoadz can take movement of loaded sea shipping containers into the mainstream. No longer would businesses have to have loading docks where they pay to have a container on a chassis waiting to be loaded or unloaded.

When containers full of merchandise are on the ground, suddenly everything changes. Warehouse space is simply containers, cheap and flexible. Shipping is filling a container at ground level over time, then having a QuickLoadz pick it up and move it to the rail system, ship, or over land, and dropped at another location.

Emergencies in Puerto Rico and Houston highlight the advantages of QuickLoadz. Thousands of containers full of supplies roll into disaster areas, but there’s no way to distribute those containers. They would all have to be repackaged and moved by conventional trailers, with the trailer being left behind, because there’s nowhere to store the relief supplies. With QuickLoadz, you just drop the container at ground level where you need it, and leave the container behind until it is empty. Flexible warehouse, where and when you need it.

QuickLoadz can save big box stores like Walmart billions by eliminating the need for loading docks, with four or five trailers just sitting at those loading docks waiting to be loaded or unloaded.