A chassis is the specialized wheeled trailer frame that a shipping container is locked onto so a truck can pull it on public roads. A container by itself has no wheels; it needs a chassis to become a road-legal trailer. The container's corner castings drop onto the chassis's twist-locks, and the combined unit is what a drayage tractor actually hauls.
Chassis come in sizes matched to the containers they carry (commonly 20-, 40-, and 45-foot, plus specialized types like tri-axle chassis for heavy loads). Sourcing the right chassis, in good working order, at the right place and time is one of the perennial headaches of drayage.
Chassis ownership is fragmented across ocean carriers, leasing companies, and pools, which is why concepts like chassis pools, chassis splits, and chassis per diem exist — all of them ways of managing who provides the chassis and who pays for the days it is in use.
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