sidelifter

thumb|250px|A sidelifter lifting a container on site A sidelifter is a specialised vehicle or semi-trailer used to hoist and transport ISO standard intermodal containers over longer distances.

==Overview== thumb|180px|Travelling by road The sidelifter loads and unloads containers via a pair of hydraulic powered cranes mounted at each end of the vehicle chassis. The cranes are designed to lift containers from the ground, from other vehicles including rolling stock, from railway wagons and directly from stacks on docks or aboard container ships. A standard sidelifter is also able to stack a container at a two containers' height on the ground. If the sidelifter chassis is of 40' length or more, the cranes of the sidelifter can be shifted hydraulically along the sidelifter chassis to be able to pick up either one 20', one 40', or two 20' ISO containers at a time.