As it was mentioned, nowadays last mile operations are performed by road transport. Most popular combination for this task is to use a tractor unit. To keep the EU regulation regarding increased maximum permissible gross mass (Directive 96/53), some of the units are equipped with 6×2 axles configuration, however, the most popular are standard 4×2 units. 

For ILUs  like container or swap body, a tractor requires also proper container chassis. In the BSR and the EU, the most popular are three axle chassis with multiple configuration to transport variety of units starting from 1×20’ in center or rear position, through 2×20’, and 1×40’ up to 1×45’ containers. Transportation of special ILUs require use of spatial chassis. Bulk containers requires chassis with tipping equipment, reefer needs energy gen-sets on trailer to plug in reefer unit, tank containers needs hoses to discharge or fill up the ILU, etc. (Figure 7.1). 

A wide range of trailer configurations available across the BSR and the whole of Europe means nothing in the case of improving the economic efficiency, due to capacity limited only to 2 TEU. Thus, the CT industry including trucking companies, supply chain stakeholders and equipment manufacturers continuously work on innovative solutions to increase the transportation capability.