Transporting Your Equipment
Transporting heavy equipment in a safe and timely manner to a job site is a critical component to any construction project. Most people use heavy equipment transportation companies to move their equipment to the location they need it to go. However with so many options to choose from, knowing what to look for in a heavy equipment transportation company is extremely important.
What to Look For
When choosing a heavy equipment transporter, there are many crucial factors to consider:
What’s the Company Like?
Research your transportation company’s credentials. This will give you an extensive background on the company as well as reviews from other people who have used them to transport equipment before. By seeing their past work it will show you what kind of equipment they have experience in transporting as well as what they might not have experience in.
Are They Licensed and Insured?
Proper licensing is one of the most important aspects of working with an equipment transportation company. You can ask them to provide you with their USDOT and MC numbers as well as check with the Better Business Bureau to see if they are properly licensed.
Insurance is crucial when working with heavy and construction equipment. Be sure to find out about the insurance they have and the transporter’s claims-to-damage ratios, which should be below 1.5%.
Time is money.
Getting your equipment to your job site on time and in good condition is obviously the highest priority. So ensuring that the company you are shipping your equipment with is fast but safe is very important. Make sure to ask about your transporters on-time delivery statistics. Also be wary if it seems that the equipment will take exceptionally long to haul to the job site. This could mean that the transporter is making many transfers, which can lead to wear and tear on your equipment.
What Questions Do You Have?
Be prepared to ask questions when picking a transporter. Being able to answer your transporters questions about the shipment will allow them to give you an accurate estimate of cost and time, which can have a huge influence when you are picking which transporting company’s services you want to use. This will also allow them to prepare for any special needs your equipment might have.
Preparing your Equipment for Transport
Don’t forget to prepare your equipment for transportation. Transporting heavy equipment is no easy task but being prepared can help make things run a lot more smoothly and ensure that your equipment will get where it needs to go in time.
Talk to your transporter and ask what you can do to prepare your equipment for them at the pick-up point. They will let you know if fragile parts of the equipment should be wrapped up or if doors should be zip-tied shut. It is also important to make sure that you have all the permits in place for transporting your specific machine ahead of time.
Look at your equipment’s manual to see if there are any special precautions or steps you should take when preparing your equipment for transport. The manual can suggest things such as disconnecting a battery or how to secure loose parts. This will help you eliminate any damage to your equipment that could happen during the move. It is also important to cover any vulnerable parts that your equipment might have. It will most likely be transported in the open air; so making sure to protect your equipment against the elements is necessary.
Oversized and overweight trucks will require special permits to be allowed to be transported on roads and highways. It is also important to make sure to map out your route ahead of time because the equipment you are transporting may be too tall to pass under bridges and power lines when loaded onto the trailer.
Make sure that you know what your transportation company is equipped with and what you need to provide on the day of pickup and drop-off. You will need an open area to load and unload your equipment. Also, some transportation companies do not provide the equipment necessary for unloading and loading heavy equipment that is not wheeled. Making sure that you have the required ramps, loading docks, and cranes to unload and load your equipment is important.
For more tips on how to transfer your heavy equipment as well as any questions you may have about how to protect your equipment when moving it, contact us today!