Storage containers are used to ship a wide variety of goods. For example, storage containers may be used to distribute commercial items from one location to another, or to ship furniture from one house to another. Traditionally, such distribution or shipping has been achieved using cargo trucks or tractor trailer trucks with storage containers fixed to the vehicle or to a trailer connected to a vehicle.
With furniture moving, for example, moving companies commonly drive cargo trucks or transfer trailer trucks to the home of the moving customer. These trucks are typically, if space, traffic, and time permits, backed up to the home to facilitate loading. Because the storage areas of these trucks are raised off the ground, additional equipment, e.g. steep ramps or mobile fork lifts, are often necessary to load furniture or goods. Further, because these storage areas are connected to the vehicles, the vehicles are not free to leave until loading is complete. Such additional labor, equipment, and time constraints are undesirable.
Some have used removable storage containers to overcome the aforementioned problems. In such systems, storage containers are removed from the transportation vehicle and placed on the ground, allowing for easier loading of goods and furniture. Such systems eliminate the need for vehicles to remain at the site until loading or unloading is complete, and allow the loading or unloading party to load or unload as need permits. Further such systems may allow storage containers to be located where they could not previously be located because traditional transportation vehicles could not access the site or could not stay long enough to permit loading or unloading.
Often, however, in such removable storage container systems, containers are loaded and unloaded from the vehicle through the use of forklifts or cranes that must be transported to the loading or unloading site. Again, this necessitates additional equipment, which is undesirable. And, if fork lifts, for example, are required to be transported to loading and unloading sites, the additional weight of such equipment will reduce transport capacity and increase fuel consumption.
Similarly, often times it is necessary to unload and then load removable storage containers onto slopes, such as, for example, a driveway on a steep hill. In such situations, if the storage container is returned to a level position too quickly or placed on a slope too quickly, contents in the storage container can shift and become damaged
Others have tried to develop systems to load and unload a storage container from a vehicle without the use of an external forklift or crane, such as, for example, by using ramps or tilt-loading. Such systems can cause goods to shift during loading and unloading, resulting in damage. For various other reasons, these prior attempts have had various additional short comings.
Thus, there exists a need for a system capable of loading and unloading a storage container with respect to a transport vehicle, wherein the system is capable of deploying and retrieving the container with respect to a location on the ground or other surface. Such a system should be able to load and unload the storage container so it stays substantially level. Such a system should also be able to exhibit a high degree of control over the horizontal plane of the storage container.