On the way to work this morning I saw something very strange on the highway. It was a UPS delivery van pulling what looked like a special trailer with little wheels; it looked similar in style to most airport vehicles that are designed to be pulled by a tug. On this special little trailer was a UPS aircraft cargo container. Three sides were metal, one side was clear. You could see that it was fully loaded with packages through the clear side. I thought this was very strange for a number of reasons.

 

a. Why on earth is an aircraft container on the highway? These are normally unloaded and sorted at the cargo facility at the airport.

a-2. The normal plausible explanation might be that the container was going to be repaired or something. However, this was fully loaded with packages.

 

b. If we can get past question 'a', why was it being pulled by a residential delivery truck instead of a tractor-trailer, lorry, semi, whatever you call it.

 

c. Could a little airport trailer be roadworthy? Its wheels are tiny and it sits so low to the ground.

 

I wish i could have gotten a picture.

 

See my attached pictures for examples of the objects involved. (not exact...approximate)

 

Perhaps due to the busy Christmas Shipping Season the regular sort facility is at capacity so some containers are being taken somewhere else to be sorted, or something like that.

 

December is the busiest month of the year for Shipping Companies so I wouldn't be surprised of UPS has a backup sort facility to get through the overflow of packages.

They do this all the time here in Honolulu.

i see them here almost every day. have so for years.