News

Suddenly, Everyone Can Use Intermodal

Small business accounts for half of the US GDP.

Right now, to use intermodal freight shipping containers, you have to have loading docks, million dollar cranes, tote trucks, and a warehouse. Therefore, sea shipping containers are confined to freight use in places where these millions of dollars of infrastructure exist.

But if the container chassis could pick up and put down the trailers from ground level all by itself, then all of that goes away. Suddenly, intermodal shipping and storage are available to everyone, not just available to large companies.

Farmers, small manufacturers, even party rental stores can now use the most efficient shipping system ever invented: the sea shipping container. Everyone who has to store, receive, or ship out merchandise can get rid of loading docks, trailers, box vans, and warehouses. With containers on the ground, the parking lot is the loading dock and warehouse. A tenth of the cost of a warehouse that you can pick up part of and ship, add to, or subtract from at will.

Not familiar with intermodal freight and logistics?

Think of it this way: Before Airbnb, if you wanted to stay a couple of nights travelling, you had to rent a room from a hotel. In other words, you had to stay at where one of these millions of dollars of facility were built. After Airbnb, anyone who had an extra room could suddenly rent you a place to stay. Whole new markets opened up.

QuickLoadz is the new high tech trailer that can move loaded sea shipping containers all by itself.

QuickLoadz will expand the use of sea shipping containers into small businesses. We make it so anyone can use containers by making it possible for anyone to move loaded containers.

I bet it will be easier to convince small businesses to buy a QuickLoadz than to convince someone to allow a stranger to stay in their house.

- Sean

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?”

Hammar Lift

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.

- Sean

QuickLoadz joins London Stock Exchange Group’s ELITE

  • ELITE is LSEG’s international business support and capital raising ecosystem for ambitious and high quality companies
  • Over 150 UK companies make up the 1000 strong international ELITE community of companies, in addition to advisers and investors
  • QuickLoadz is a rapidly growing South East Ohio company manufacturing the first trailer chassis specially designed for moving shipping containers

QuickLoadz today joins London Stock Exchange Group’s international business support and capital raising ecosystem, ELITE. QuickLoadz, along with the other new ELITE company leadership teams closed trading on London’s market.

About QuickLoadz

QuickLoadz builds revolutionary truck beds and trailers to move loaded sea shipping containers. By allowing loaded sea shipping containers to move from anywhere to anywhere at ground level QuickLoadz opens up intermodal shipping to tens of thousands of new customers while eliminating the need for 19 out of 20 traditional trailers, loading docks, warehouses. QuickLoadz is the solution to allow autonomous pickup and delivery of entire containers of merchandise creating the new world of freight.

Sean Jones, CEO and Founder of QuickLoadz:

“QuickLoadz is excited to join the London Stock Exchange Group Elite program. QuickLoadz is the last piece of the puzzle needed to revolutionize freight and logistics through the first real innovation in container transportation in decades. However, the better mousetrap is useless if no one knows about it, and the London Stock Exchange Group’s Elite program promises to give QuickLoadz access to the training, capital markets and customers it needs to move freight and logistics into the future one container at a time.”

Umerah Akram, Head of ELITE UK, London Stock Exchange:

“I’m excited to present the latest group of UK companies to join ELITE, a clear demonstration of the country’s ability to grow great businesses. These companies drive innovation, employment, and create opportunities for us all.

“ELITE is committed to giving the British business stars of the future the very best chance to succeed, providing them with access to appropriate expertise and capital. It is a unique, strong community of the best and most dynamic entrepreneurs, advisers, investors and business school academics from the UK, Europe and around the world.”

About ELITE

ELITE is a full-service programme designed to help ambitious companies prepare and structure for the next stage of growth through the access to long term financing opportunities. It is a unique offering for scale-ups across Europe and beyond, providing a comprehensive training programme and extensive access to the business and financial community. The ELITE Funding platform, launched in 2017, will also help streamline the capital raising process for ELITE companies.

For further information ELITE, the companies and the full list of partners, please go to: www.elite-network.com

The QuickLoadz and ELITE logos, side by side.
- Sean

Difficult, skeptical, grumpy, four years before the first sale

One of the largest mobile storage companies in the US has just moved to QuickLoadz.

They grumpily bought one QuickLoadz. Complained about the price, complained about the wait time, complained that it was different.

Production doubled. The driver loved it.

They grumpily bought a second QuickLoadz for a different location. More complaining about the price, more complaining about the wait time.

Again, production doubled. A different driver loved it.

They are now only ordering QuickLoadz. They still complain…but now, only about the wait time.

An entirely new source of business opened up. Before, to comply with DOT, they couldn’t move loaded containers. Their old system had the container hanging off the back of the trailer. With QuickLoadz, the container is entirely on the trailer, and it is locked on.

Suddenly, they can move loaded containers. Suddenly, their contractor business doubled.

QuickLoadz is moving containers all over the world, every day.

QuickLoadz is so automated, the the driver never leaves their seat in the cab of the truck.

Fast, light, safe, simple, versatile, sturdy, and cheap.

Our holiday present to you:

Half priced hot dip galvanizing.

What kills trailers faster than an angry driver? Rust. Get the very best rust protection you can get, for half the price, through the end of 2018.

- Sean

What if the box hadn’t been invented?

Pretend that the cardboard box had never been invented, and you have to move. You gather up your stuff a handful at a time—socks, spoons, pillows, toys, etc. Maybe put some of it in bags, carry it an armful at a time to your car, lots of trips. You drive to your new house, pick it up an armful at a time, and unload your car.

That is exactly what shipping was like before the sea shipping container was invented. Individual pallets, bags, and boxes moved by hand in and out of ships, trains, and trucks. You can move that way, and it works, but moving with cardboard boxes is a lot easier and more efficient. The container is so much more efficient that freight rates and loss dropped 90%. Suddenly, you can ship things economically, and the whole world opens up.

Now, pretend the cardboard box has been invented, but it can only be picked up or taken out of your car with a special crane that you have when you leave and where you arrive. It is a lot easier to load your stuff into the box and into the car, but you can’t unload any boxes until you get to the other end, where you have another special crane. That is what is happening now with sea shipping containers.

Until some guy in Ohio invents a way to pick up and drop off cardboard boxes whenever and wherever you want, without the special cranes at either end—way easier. Now that you can pick up and put down your cardboard boxes wherever you want, things like UPS and Amazon suddenly become possible. It’s exactly the same with sea shipping containers. Some guy in Ohio invented QuickLoadz, which picks up and puts down sea shipping containers wherever you want, without any cranes. Same benefits, just bigger boxes. Warehouses, ports, and loading docks will be a lot less important as containers move end to end wherever you want. What else will suddenly become possible?

Great book on how the box changed the world:

- Sean

QuickLoadz Wreck

Early in March 2018, a QuickLoadz trailer was rear ended at a high rate of speed by a semi truck. No one was killed or seriously injured, which is surprising from the pictures of the damage the truck received.

The QuickLoadz trailer’s bumper was damaged, and the rear of the trailer bent. But when you see what happened to the semi that hit it…

We build them sturdy.

The gnarled remains of the semi that rear ended a QuickLoadz trailer.
The QuickLoadz trailer in question, shown with minimal damage.

Tow trailer, flatbed trailer, but most of all…

Automated container mover. Move 60,000 pounds of merchandise in three minutes without ever getting out of the seat in your truck.

- Sean

Better Engineering: Galvanizing Warp

All sheet metal, when it leaves the mill, is hot rolled into big rolls, stored, and shipped that way. Since the roll is flattened and cut into sheets while cold, the memory is still there from when it was wound up hot. The steel on the outside of the roll has less memory because it’s less tightly wound; the steel on the inside has a lot of memory because it’s very tightly wound.

Tread plate has this memory more than slick steel; I assume it’s because of the raised diamonds which are also pressed into the steel while it is hot. But all sheet metal has this memory.

On a QuickLoadz, the deck is made up of 3/16″ tread plate cut into 16″ wide sections and welded to the 10G cross-members. When the plate steel hits the 845° molten zinc, memory in the steel is released. But you also have this 16″ × 42″ wide piece of steel welded in select spots, so the memory has no place to go, and will therefore cause the 16″ wide panels to hump up or down. This isn’t severe and will generally be less than half an inch, but is completely unavoidable unless you dip the trailer, then the deck plates, then weld them together afterwards. If you do that, you get crappy welds because of the zinc, and where you welded, you don’t get the protection of the hot dip galvanizing.

We cut our deck plates into 16″ sections instead of 48″ sections because in 16″ sections, the warp is manageable. Over a 48″ wide section, the stresses become so great that oftentimes it will rip out welds. Also, we are very specific as to where the deck plates are welded, to balance the warp of individual sheets with the strength of the deck overall.

There are odd ball things that will happen. For instance, some plates won’t seem to warp at all, and some warp a full half inch up or down. The reason is that some of those plates were made with outside roll (little memory) and some inside roll (lots of memory). Deck plate warp is noticeable when you’re standing right next to the trailer, but you can’t really see it in pictures. For example, this picture is right down the line of the bed:

- Sean

45′ of Hot Steel for the US Army

The US Army ordered a hot dip galvanized QuickLoadz 40′ trailer.

We have had to do a lot of design work to make hot dip galvanizing possible. I don’t think that there are any other trailer manufacturers that dip an entire 40′ trailer complete. Most dip them in sections and bolt them together. I like dipping the entire thing because it makes it really sturdy, you are almost soldering the trailer together after the welds.

We are fairly experienced in hot dip galvanizing by now, but it is still fun to see. At 45′ long, 9,900 pounds, 8′ 6″ wide and 3′ tall, it just barely fits in the molten zinc tank. It’s the biggest thing our manufacturer has ever galvanized all at once.

A small crowd gathered to look at it.

Watching it go in is spectacular, the smell of sulfur from the acid dip tanks, the boiling water from the cooling tanks, the molten zinc flying in the air as it pops and flings due to the temperature differences, flames breaking out where we have put in high temperature silicon to stop the zinc from sticking to some assemblies, the creak of metal as one side hits 840° and the other is at 60°.

A trailer being lowered by crane into a vat to be hot dip galvanized at the QuickLoadz headquarters.

It came out perfect. It took four hours to cool down, and we picked it up the next day.

The trailer bed, post-dip, all shiny and galvanized.

Maybe as a side line we can sell small galvanized bridges. Oh that’s right, we don’t have enough time as is.

The US Army wanted a trailer that was fast, versatile, easy to use, and to not have to worry about rust. That is QuickLoadz.

Wouldn’t you like to not worry about rust? How is your trailer going to look after this long winter?

- Sean

The Most Maneuverable 40′

At Quickloadz, convenience and safety for the driver is important. Moving 40′ containers, or any 40′ trailer really, requires a lot of room. Much less room if you have sliding axles.

Sliding axles go all the way back on the highway for maximum stability, and for times you need to avoid back swing on the rear of the trailer:

Sliding axles go all the way forward for those tight turns:

“So what?” you ask. “My 40′ trailer can slide its axles.” Yeah, but…

QuickLoadz can slide its axles while moving, without the driver leaving their seat.

That’s right. You don’t have to get out, start your pony engine, push or pull some hydraulic levers.

In a QuickLoadz, while moving, you can:

  1. See what is behind you on your smartphone using the QuickLoadz Wi-Fi rearview camera.
  2. Start the 40 HP EFI Kohler engine, and slide those axles to where you need them for that turn.

Need something heavier? The same sliding axle works on out 40,000 lb. and 60,000 lb. units—the units the US Army buys from us.

Move to easy. Move to QuickLoadz. You deserve it.

- Sean