VEHICLE VESSEL MEANING SERIES

And so we have the LiM - or measured in Lanes in Meters. That means a different standard of measurement is required.

Therefore one 20-foot container equals one TEU.Ĭlearly this is irrelevant when the cargo is not in shipping containers and is a car or a truck. TEU means Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit and is a measure of volume in units of twenty-foot long shipping containers. While cargo ships, container vessels, and container feeders measure their capacity for cargo in TEU, a car carrier is a little different.

This allows the cargo - AKA the cars or other vehicles to be easily driven onto the ship and then off again at the destination port or terminal, or even just the other side of the river in the case of a RoPax vessel (i.e. In addition there may be ramps inside the vessel and hoistable car decks. These ramps may be located at the stern (back) of the vessel or at the bow (front.) They might also be situated at the sides of the ship. Whilst shipping containers are loaded and unloaded onto a cargo or container ship using cranes or derricks and chemicals are loaded and discharged from chemical tankers using a system of pipes, the car carrier needs a different method to load its freight onboard. If you’re thinking that this sounds like an industry term for a ferry, then you’d be right. RoPax ship: A vessel that transports cars and other small vehicles but also allows for passengers onboard.These are generally smaller in size and capacity than a ConRo ship and carry…you guessed it, general cargo and wheeled cargo. General Cargo and RoRo Ship (GenRo): A vessel that is a combination of both a regular cargo ship and a RoRo ship.These are designed to carry both shipping containers and wheeled cargo. Container Ship and RoRo Ship (ConRo): A vessel that is a combination of both a traditional container ship and a RoRo ship.These could be new cars and trucks, or even tractors and other plant machinery. Pure Car Truck Carrier (PCTC): A vessel used to transport any kind of four-wheeled vehicle from one port to another.For example, Japanese cars that are to be sold in the United Kingdom. Pure Car Carrier (PCC): A vessel used to only transport cars, typically new vehicles to their destination market.We’ll take a closer look at them all, but meanwhile if you’d like to get to grips with what exactly a Roll On, Roll Off ship is, check out this article:Įverything You Need to Know About RoRo Ships Different types of car carriersĪs we’ve said, car carrier ships fall under the category of RoRo ship, and as we’ve seen, there are PCC and PCTC vessels, but what else is out there and what do all these mean exactly? Let’s break it down. There are a number of different types of car carriers, all of them falling under the category of RoRo ship, encompassing everything from a cargo ship to a ferry to a vessel that transports military vehicles such as tanks. For example, if you’ve always wanted to know how an icebreaker works, or what a lightship, crane vessel, fireboat or a gas carrier ship is, what dredgers do, or what differentiates oil tankers and chemical tankers, we have plenty more for you to read.īut for now, let’s focus on that unsung hero of the waves, the car carrier ship! Everything you need to know about car carrier ships

VEHICLE VESSEL MEANING SERIES

Want to know more about car carriers and car truck carriers? There’s more to learn so keep reading!Īnd if you’d like to know more about other types of ships, check out some of the other articles in this series which covers different types of boats, yachts, ships and vessels. The ships that carry only cars are known as Pure Car Carriers (PCC), whilst the vessels that carry various types of four-wheeled cargo are known as Pure Car Truck Carriers (PCTC). Car carriers are a type of RoRo ships - which means Roll-On, Roll-Off, as this is how their cargo is loaded and unloaded. A car carrier or car carrier ship is a vessel that has been designed for the transportation of either just cars, or a combination of cars, trucks, buses and other wheeled vehicles.

Vehicle vessel meaning