Correctly Spec’d Floors Can Reduce Cost of Trailer Maintenance, Industry Execs Say
This story appears in the May 23 print edition of Transport Topics.
Trailer flooring should be a zero-maintenance component of a trucking operation, but that’s the case only if the floor is spec’d correctly, suppliers and fleet executives said.
“A floor for a longhaul truckload application will be quite different from a distribution operation like grocery delivery,” said Darry Stuart, CEO of DWS Fleet Management.
“Loading cycles, the weight of the loaded forklift, the weight to be scaled, the trade cycle for the trailers, the region of operation and other factors all have a bearing on floor type, floor thickness and crossmember spacings to meet the expectations of the fleet,” said Stuart, who provides consulting services to the trucking industry.
In dry-van applications with wood floors, for example, Stuart said that if a fleet is doing costly repairs, it’s because the specifications of the floor and supporting crossmembers were not matched to the demands of the application and life expectations for the trailer.
John Carr, vice president of sales and marketing for Havco Wood Products, a manufacturer of floors for dry-van trailers, echoes similar points. The company uses only oak for the flooring, Carr said, adding that Havco supplies 40% of the wood floors used by trailer manufacturers. Oak is resistant to rot, an important factor in the harsh conditions a trailer floor is exposed to — from above and below, he said.
Rockland Flooring has customers who are heavily involved in specifying their flooring while others rely on the recommendations of their preferred trailer manufacturer, said Chris Wolford, vice president of sales and marketing.
“Floors are tested extensively at the [original equipment manufacturer] level so we work closely with trailer manufacturers to design floor systems with several specific load ratings,” he said.
One of the most detrimental conditions to trailer flooring is when trailers are parked with their doors open.
“Typically, when I visit a fleet terminal, I see 40% to 50% of trailers parked with the doors open,” said Jim Jannell, national sales manager for Prolam Flooring Co. “This is hard on a floor because it gets soaked by rain and snow, and it is a part of the floor that sees the maximum number of forklift passages during loading and unloading.”
Due to the impact of forklifts as they enter the trailer, some trailer makers option a landing plate for the first few feet of the floor. However, Pottle’s Transportation — which hauls paper and beverages out of two locations in New England — doesn’t like this solution because water gets trapped under the plate and the rotting process begins.
“Pottle’s cannot dictate a closed-door policy because many of the trailers are dropped at consignees. All customers are different and have diverse policies regarding closed or open doors,” said Barry Pottle, president of the company.
Pottle’s imposes huge forklift loads on the trailer floor because the products are heavy. The Utility trailers the company put into service feature a 1½-inch Prolam floor with 4-inch steel I-beam crossmembers on 8-inch centers for the full length of the trailer for a 24,000-pound-rated floor, Pottle said.
“Our previous specifications were rated at 18,000 pounds, which caused the wood floor structure to buckle from forklift loads and separate after repeated loading and unloading of large paper rolls, resulting in leaking,” he said.
Pottle’s trailers come standard with a 27-inch-wide entrance plate that is welded to the approach plate with side gussets to withstand fork truck loading. The floor butts up to this plate.
“Since the installation of the Prolam flooring system, our claims from wet paper damage have gone from approximately $70,000 to near zero,” he said.
For protection of the lower side of the floor, the manufacturers offer a variety of protecting layers that can be optioned.
Havco offers a composite oak and glass fiber construction that adds strength and is impervious to moisture and road chemicals under the trailer, the company said. This Fusion floor can be spec’d with ratings up to 35,000 pounds with the appropriate crossmember spacing. Because of the composite strength, the floor can be up to 360 pounds lighter than a regular hardwood floor in a 53-foot trailer, Carr said.
Also offering a composite floor among its range of materials, Rockland Flooring has its Pound Saver laminated oak floor. It, too, offers protection of the underside of the floor from water, salt and road gravel while saving weight over traditional oak flooring, Wolford said.
The company has several products designed to improve floor performance and life, he said.
“Composite flooring, like our Pound Saver and Defender floors, are great options to increase floor life because of the protection and reinforcement they offer,” Wolford said.
Rockland’s surface coatings, such as Grip Guard, “are becoming more popular as fleets become more focused on keeping their trailers longer,” he added. “Anytime we can keep water from penetrating the wood and damaging the glue line, the floor is going to last longer.”
Much of the interest in trailer flooring concerns the desire to keep trailers longer while maintaining a floor’s integrity.
Steve Maxson, vice president for equipment at Averitt Express, said the fleet was looking to extend its trailer life up to 12 to 15 years.
“Floors are the major issue,” he said. “We were experiencing delamination from moisture from beneath so we switched to composite floors three years ago, and at the same time, we can also trim weight.”
Averitt hauls less-than-truckload, truckload and dedicated freight, so the carrier needs a versatile trailer spec. As a result, when switching floor types, Maxson said, the company revised the crossmember spacing from 12 inches to 10 inches.
Cookeville, Tennessee-based Averitt ranks No. 33 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.
While DWS’ Stuart said that a floor system, when spec’d for the operation, should be maintenance-free, a few maintenance factors may need to be considered.
At Rockland’s website, for example, is a guide to the right and wrong ways of dealing with floor issues that may crop up. The guide recommends various periodic inspections to keep its floors in top condition. It touches on areas including cleaning of the floor, the wood’s integrity, hook joints and undercoating.
Overall, the floor must be considered a system, and trailer or floor manufacturers should be consulted during the spec process to get the appropriate flooring material, thickness and crossmember spacing, Stuart and the trailer manufacturers said. A variety of options are available, but the user must be forthcoming in communicating the type of operation, freight and longevity required from the trailer.
“We spend a significant amount of our time on product education at the OEM, dealer and fleet levels, so yes, we encourage direct communication with our fleet customers,” Rockland’s Wolford said.
It’s a “collaborative and sometimes challenging process of coming up with the right balance of performance, protection and value,” he said, noting that this involves learning the details of a carrier’s operation, understanding of its needs and developing “a solution specific to that customer.”
