Marxen Design | Trucktail

Containerized sea trade doubled in the last two decades to 74 million container shipments per year. And all of these containers need to be transported to and from ports. In Germany, for 76% of ISO containers this happens by truck. About 30% of the operating costs of a container truck stems from the fuel consumption and a large part of the fuel consumption stems from the loaded truck having the aerodynamic properties of a brick. Any aerodynamic improvement here would have a noticeable and profitable effect.

A multitude of startups have developed rigid aerodynamic systems for the rear of general and bulk cargo trucks. However, these systems need to be permanently affixed. Testing of these systems has shown that the mileage can be improved by 10%. An Aerodynamic system for container trucks however would need to be temporary and very quick to assemble and disassemble by the driver alone.

Trucktail is an inflatable PVC bag that can quickly be mounted to the rear of any container truck and through its shape, greatly reduce aerodynamic drag. The inflated bag is attached to two steel hooks which can be attached to the corner castings of an ISO-container. At the bottom, the rods are fixed to the container by a chain and a carabiner or padlock.

Awards:

Red Dot Concept Award 2017 - Honorable Mention

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Remove the system from the container trailer's stowage box.
Hook both steel pipes into the container’s top corner castings.
Chain the steel pipes to the container’s bottom corner castings.
Inflate the Trucktail with compressed air from the secondary air pressure circuit.
Voila!

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