Swap body
A swap body is a standardised, detachable freight container that can be moved between trucks and trailers, allowing a vehicle to drop one load and pick up another quickly.
What is Swap body?
A swap body stands on four fold-out support legs: the truck lowers its air suspension, drives out from underneath and leaves the body at the dock, with no crane or forklift needed. This decouples the cargo unit from the vehicle: a body can be loaded while detached, then mounted on a chassis only when ready to move, improving asset utilisation. Swap bodies are common in European road and combined transport.
A TMS that treats trailers, containers, and swap bodies as independent, trackable equipment can attach and detach them from vehicles during trips and apply the correct capacity and stacking rules.
Frequently asked questions
What sizes do swap bodies come in?
The most common swap bodies in Europe are class C units standardised in EN 284: C 715, C 745 and C 782, which are 7.15, 7.45 and 7.82 m long and 2.55 m wide. They are typically carried in pairs on a truck-and-trailer combination. Longer class A swap bodies of 12.2 to 13.6 m exist for semi-trailer-length loads.
See Swap body in a real TMS
Transportial puts these concepts to work in one operational platform — planning, tracking, documents, and finance.