Trailer on flatcar, also known as TOFC or piggyback, is the practice of carrying semi-trailers on railroad flatcars. TOFC allows for shippers to move truckloads long distances more cheaply than can be done by having each trailer towed by a truck, since one train can carry more than 100 trailers at once.[1] The trailers will be moved by truck from their origin to an intermodal facility, where they will then be loaded onto a train, typically by a rubber tired gantry crane, for the bulk of their journey. Alternatively, trailers may be driven onto the flatcars via ramps by a terminal tractor. Near the destination, the trailers are unloaded at another facility and brought to their final destination by a tractor unit.[2]
Modern TOFC service was first introduced in North America in the 1950s, although the practice of carrying another mode of transport on flatcars was first recorded in 1843 when canal boats were moved by a portage railway between several cities in Pennsylvania.[1][2]
TOFC is distinct from containerization. While both are examples of intermodal transport, trailer on flatcar is the loading of entire trailers onto railroad cars, while in containerization, the container is detached from the trailer chassis for railroad transport.
- ^ a b Schafer, Mike (1999). Freight train cars. Mike McBride. Osceola, Wis.: MBI Pub. pp. 20–21, 29. ISBN 0-7603-0612-5. OCLC 41002704.
- ^ a b Ayre, Josephine (1966). History and Regulation of Trailer-on-flatcar Movement (piggyback). U.S. Bureau of Public Roads.