Sizing Up The Load: How To Determine What Trucking Services You Need To Transport Your Items
Posted on: 5 November 2015
The smaller the item you need to ship, the easier it gets, but what happens when you are shipping something really, really large? Most people would assume that they have to ship using freight trucks or ocean freighters, especially to get around many parts of Canada. However, there are easier ways to determine what trucking services you really need by sizing up the load. Here is is how it works.
Finding the Right Truck by Measuring the Item's Shipping Weight
Some items, like a backhoe, weighs between a little over six metric tonnes to a little over eleven metric tonnes. Knowing how much an object generally weighs, you can then find the trucking companies in your province that have shipping trucks and services that are able to bear that much weight. The flatbed haulers on which a backhoe would need to rest requires a tractor that has enough diesel muscle to pull it as well as several axles that are strong enough to bear the weight while the hauler is in motion.
Finding the Right Truck by Measuring the Item's Dimensions
Sometimes it is not just the weight of an object that you must consider before you attempt to move it or ship it. Your item's dimensions play a very big part in the type of trucking service you need too. For example, if you are in the business of building modular log cabin homes, you undoubtedly have several sections of the same modular home that have to be shipped separately. Because of their odd shapes, the sections each need to be measured accurately for the trucking company to recommend the right type and style of truck to handle your shipments. You may need a low and extra wide load truck with an additional side platform to carry a house section to its destination, or you may need a low flatbed to carry one long house section. The dimensions of the sections here are everything to the shipping company as much as they are to your costs and bottom line.
A "Push-Me, Pull-You" Truck Situation
Just as really long and extremely heavy trains need double the engine power to move, so might your load. A semi tractor on the front of the load bears most of the weight during hauling, but an additional tractor connected in the reverse direction off the back helps push the load when the first tractor is having trouble. When the item you are shipping is several metric tonnes and has multiple odd dimensions, this type of service is an absolute necessity, especially if the load is traveling over and through the Canadian Rockies.
For more information, contact companies like W G Davis & Sons Trucking Ltd.
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