Road Transport Terms

Vehicles that work on a freelance basis, contracted for a one-off load run.

Swap body refers to containers so thinly constructed that goods cannot be stacked on top of one another and cannot be lifted by a stacker. They are made from lightweight materials to reduce initial procurement costs and minimize long-term fuel costs. Their dimensions are in standard ISO container dimensions so that they can be loaded to other container-carrying vehicles. Thanks to their foldable legs, which are generally located at their four corners, they can replace the vehicle on which they are being transported without any need for a loading/unloading system.

Empty weight of the container.

    
This is a customs approved procedure after the consignment has been presented to the customs office, or where it is allowed to be temporarily stored by the customs authorities until used.

Twenty-foot equivalent units. Unit of measure used to indicate container capacities. 1 TEU is 20ft (length) × 8ft (width) × 9ft (height) or metrically 6.10m (length) × 2.44m (width) × 2.59m (height) and approximately 38.5m³ in volume. A 40ft container is referred to as a 2 TEU, while a 45ft container can be referred to as a 2 TEU as well.

This comes from the French term Transports Internationaux Routiers. The Transports Internationaux Routiers was an agreement signed in Geneva on 15 January 1959 by the International Transport Association (IRU) acting within the United Nations. This agreement is a contract allowing the use of combined transport (roads, railways, airways, waterways) and containers between 11 countries (Austria, Sweden, Portugal, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, France, Malta, Switzerland, Tunisia and Yugoslavia) (1994).
Vehicles from countries signed up to this agreement carry a TIR Carnet indicating the type, amount and nature of the goods they carry, as well as a TIR plate affixed to certain parts of the vehicle. Customs checks of goods specified in the TIR Carnets are carried out at the place of departure and only external controls - except in cases of suspicion - are performed by the customs of the countries on route to the destination. In Turkey, land transportation vehicles with a semi-trailer and tow truck attached to them are called TIR trucks.