Trailers outnumber tractors, which is the whole problem
A distribution operation typically runs more trailers than tractors, because trailers sit at docks being loaded while tractors keep moving. That ratio is efficient and it is also why trailer alignment goes unmanaged.
A tractor comes back to a yard regularly, has a driver who reports things, and gets attention. A trailer is dropped somewhere, picked up by somebody else, and may not be seen by the same person twice in a year. Nobody owns its condition.
The practical consequence is that a fleet can carry a crooked trailer indefinitely, because the information needed to identify it is spread across several drivers and several yards and never gets assembled.
Assemble it from the tire records
The tire records are the one place the information already is. Every trailer tire replacement is logged against a unit number somewhere, usually on an invoice.
Pull a year of them and sort by unit. The trailers that appear repeatedly are the candidates, and you will usually find the list is shorter than you expected: a small number of units accounting for a disproportionate share of the trailer tire spend.
That is the measurement list. It costs an hour of somebody's time and it does not require anybody to notice anything.
What gets measured
Axle alignment to the kingpin, the relationship between axles on a tandem or tri-axle, and the condition of the suspension and mounting hardware. Heavy-duty truck alignment is at the same store, so a combination can be measured rather than one end of it.
The national trailer alignment page covers the signs worth looking for.
About this store
The Springdale store carries trailer tires and every other Purcell category, runs eighteen services, and is managed by Jackie McAfee.
See the national trailer alignment page for all 36 locations.