Equipment and Axle Profiles

How to create your own Equipment Types in the Equipment library, choose and adjust equipment for a Load Plan, and add an Axle Profile to a road Equipment Type.

An Equipment Type is a closed rectangular transport volume that Calculate loads into: a container, a trailer, a truck, a van, or a pallet. It has inside dimensions, a door opening, a maximum payload, and an empty weight. Cargo Marshal ships built-in Sea, Road, and Pallet types. You can add your own for the vehicles your organization uses. The Equipment library holds both.

A Load Plan does not point at the library. When you select a type for a plan, the plan keeps a copy. Editing the library later never changes an existing plan.

Create your own Equipment Type

1. Open Equipment library in the sidebar and choose a tab: Sea, Road, or Pallet.
2. Choose New equipment type.
3. To start from a built-in type, pick one under Start from template. It fills in the form, including its Axle Profile, and the name becomes “Name (copy)”.
4. Enter the Equipment type name and the Inside dimensions. A pallet takes the pallet length, pallet width, and a maximum load height instead.
5. Under Openings, enter the Door width and Door height, measured inside the door frame. They cannot be larger than the inside. Then set the openings that apply:
   • Side loading height if cargo also goes in from the side, as on a curtainsider. Leave it empty for rear loading only.
   • Loads from above (open top) for an open-top container.
   • No walls (open platform) for a flatbed. Calculate then checks every piece for load securing, see Load securing.
   • Doors can carry cargo only if the doors are rated to take cargo pressure. By default doors never count as a wall in the securing check. This is your statement about the equipment, and Cargo Marshal does not verify it.
6. Under Weights, enter the Maximum payload and the Empty weight.
7. For a road type, you can add an Axle Profile. See Add an Axle Profile.
8. Choose Create equipment type.

Built-in types are read-only. To adjust one, choose Duplicate or Customise a copy in its menu. Your own types have Edit and Delete. After a delete, Undo in the message brings the type back.

The form rejects an inside width above the legal limit for the Mode and a door or side opening larger than the inside.

Choose equipment for a Load Plan

1. Open the Load Plan and choose the plan setup button under the plan list, which names the equipment and the objective. On narrower screens it is in the plan bar.
2. Choose Select equipment. Pick up to 20 Equipment Types. Use the Equipment mode filter and the search to find them. The Mode of the Project only decides which types a new Load Plan starts with. You can mix Sea and Road types in one plan.
3. Under Max units, set the most Units of a type the plan may use, or leave it empty for no limit.
4. Choose Apply selection. This replaces the equipment the plan had before.

If a Cargo Line fits none of the selected equipment, the dialog says so and names the line. You can still Calculate, and that cargo stays Unloaded. Changing the equipment makes a calculated plan Out of date, so Calculate again.

Adjust a type for one plan

To change a size, a door, a payload, or a price for one plan only, open Change size or price next to the type in the same dialog and change the values. Choose Apply selection to save. The library stays unchanged. Reset to library restores the library values and keeps the plan’s price. Prices are covered in Cheapest fleet.

Add an Axle Profile

An Axle Profile describes how the deck of a road Equipment Type sits on its axles. With one, Cargo Marshal works out the load on every axle from the cargo’s weight and centre of gravity and warns when a limit is exceeded. Calculate also keeps the load within the limits where it can. Only road types can have a profile. The page Axle loads explains what is checked and where the built-in values come from.

1. Open the road Equipment Type for editing, or create a new one. Starting from a built-in template copies its profile.
2. Under Axle loads, tick Check axle loads for this equipment.
3. Under Vehicle, choose Semi-trailer or Truck or van.
4. Enter the positions in the length direction, measured from the front wall. A negative value is ahead of the front wall, as for a truck’s front axle. Enter the empty weights and the maximums. For a semi-trailer, tick Include the tractor to add the tractor’s wheelbase, fifth wheel position, empty weights, and axle maximums.
5. Optionally set the Minimum steer axle share and, with a tractor, the Minimum drive axle share. The defaults are 20% and 25%.
6. Choose Update equipment type or Create equipment type.

The form checks the order of the positions: the axle group must lie behind the kingpin, the rear axle behind the front axle, and the fifth wheel within the wheelbase. Template values are typical figures. The form notes that the values are typical and that you should check your vehicle’s plate until you change them. Enter the figures from your vehicle’s papers for a reliable check.

To use another tractor for one plan only, open Change size or price for the type in the plan’s equipment dialog. The tractor section there has the wheelbase, fifth wheel, and empty weights, plus presets to fill in a typical Actros-like, MAN-like, or Scania-like tractor.

The axle loads appear in the results of each Unit, in the warnings, and in the Loading Report.