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5 Maintenance Tips to Keep Your Heavy Haul Trucking Vehicles in Tip Top Shape

Your truck requires a lot of care and love if it’s going to last. It has to brave the open road, potholes, mud, and rain, and even hail in some instances. Heavy haul trucking is grueling work, and it’s murder on your truck. So here are a few maintenance tips that you can use to keep your truck in tip-top shape.

Your truck requires a lot of care and love if it’s going to last. It has to brave the open road, potholes, mud, and rain, and even hail in some instances. Heavy haul trucking is grueling work, and it’s murder on your truck. So here are a few maintenance tips that you can use to keep your truck in tip-top shape.

1.     Periodic Oil and Filter Changes

The best thing for a truck’s engine is lubricant while heavy haul trucking. The oil that keeps the engine’s parts running smoothly and free of rust is very important. It needs to be changed periodically so that when it becomes contaminated with dust and dirt, it doesn’t do damage.

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5 Best Practices for Handling Heavy Haul Freight

Handling heavy haul freight needs a lot of planning and care. It’s not like you can shift industrial equipment, mobile homes, or heavy machinery without a plan. However, some enterprises are very careless and perfunctory with their processes.

5 Best Practices for Handling Heavy Haul Freight

To avoid accidents, mishaps, and general inefficiency, there are certain best practices that they need to adhere to. Here are 5 best practices that all trucking companies should follow when handling heavy haul freight.

1.     Getting the Right Permits

Shipping heavy haul freight requires permits for several things. With the exception of hazardous materials, no other shipping industry has as many restrictions. Hence, there is a huge margin for paperwork errors. This proves to make work arduous in the long run. Hence, to efficiently move heavy haul equipment, it’s pertinent to take care of paperwork thoroughly. A single wrong dimension or a number out of place can prove disastrous.

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Here are 3 Ways to Prepare Flatbed Carriers for the Shipping Season

The popularity of flatbed carriers increases in the summer months. With the onset of the summer season, small to mid-size shippers usually face a huge demand and finding units becomes harder. This leads to a lot of shippers delving deeper into their route guides. They also resort to spot market bidding as their route guides become exhausted during the road. As a result, the costs per unit increase and more time is spent trying to procure enough units for shipping.

Flatbed trucking season merits that you prepare for the long haul

How the Summer Months Affect the Flatbed Carrier Market

 

According to research conducted by the Iowa State University regarding flatbed carriers, market conditions continuously fluctuate. The truckload market faces varying demand throughout the year and has to reshuffle its capacity to align. However, this fluctuation in demand is much more rampant for flatbed trucks than for the rest of the truckload market.

Hence, flatbed trucks tend to adhere to routes that prove more profitable. They accept loads that are more profitable and have a greater ROI. It’s not uncommon that they turn down a shipment at their contracted rate only to accept at a greater rate. This is known as a spot market bid.

3 Tips to Prepare for the Flatbed Season

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Transporting Freight With an Oversize Trucking Service

Businesses in the construction and aviation industries use special services to ship their equipment between cities. The items they work with often exceed a certain size, and cannot be transported via regular trucking methods.

: Select an experienced oversize trucking service to transport your freight.

Instead, this cargo needs to be delivered with the help of a specialized oversize trucking company.

You can expect your oversized freight to be transported in a safe and timely manner by choosing the right oversize trucking company; however, you can make the process easier by planning. Here are some tips for transporting oversize freight with one of these companies.

1.      Choose the right company

There are plenty of oversize trucking companies in each state. Narrowing down your choices can be a challenge if you haven’t shipped with one of these services before. However, a good rule of thumb is to go for the company in your area with the most industry experience.

 

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Are Flatbed Shipping Companies Reliable?

Most states are home to at least a few flatbed shipping companies. However, people often assume they are identical to ordinary trucking companies. This misconception has led many to believe that trucking companies can perform the same hauling feats that flatbed shipping companies can.

flatbed shipping companies
Reliability of flatbed shipping companies

This is untrue, as oversized shipping services are the only reliable way to transport oversized freight by road. Their flatbed trailers are suited for carrying equipment that exceeds traditional freight dimensions safely. Oversized shipping companies are considered reliable due to the following reasons.

1.       Experience with transporting oversized freight

Flatbed shipping companies deal with oversized items all year round. They have plenty of experience loading and unloading over-dimensional freight onto trucks, so they can be trusted to move your cargo safely.

 

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3 Tips for Transporting Oversize Loads

It’s not uncommon to see oversized cargo being transported on the back of semi-trailer trucks on the highway. Oversize load trucking can be a challenge; however, most shipping companies are pros at transporting these large items thanks to past experience and tips developed over the decades.

Oversize load trucking

If you’d like to transport oversized freight with minimal problems, you should follow these tips.

1.      Take it slow

Transporting oversized loads can be a slow process. This cargo often needs to be loaded and unloaded using special equipment, and the transportation stage on the road tends to be slow as well.

However, this slow pace is a voluntary choice on the driver’s part to ensure the safety of other cars and pedestrians on the road. Oversized loads are often very heavy, and add to the truck’s total momentum when it is in motion. These loads require additional braking force to bring the vehicle to a complete stop on the road.

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Why Do Over Dimensional Freight Quotes Differ from Freight Rates?

Flatbed trucking companies usually provide their clients with an over-dimensional freight quote for their shipping services. However, these quotes usually differ from the actual freight rate the client ends up paying. You may be wondering why this discrepancy occurs.

over dimensional freight quotes

The differences between the initial freight quote estimate and the actual freight rate paid can be explained due to several factors. Here are some reasons why freight quotes differ from freight rates.

1.      Holiday surcharges

Some over-dimensional shipping companies charge differently for shipments made during holidays. These trucking companies may have less equipment available on holidays, so it could be more expensive to transport your over-dimensional freight on these days.

The cost of using equipment on a holiday can be difficult to estimate in the initial freight quote because the availability of equipment won’t be known until the shipping date itself. Due to this reason, your freight rate may vary from your initial freight quote if your cargo is shipped on a holiday.

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4 Factors That Affect Shipping Rates For Over Dimensional Freight

Large cargo that exceeds certain dimensions needs to be transported by over-dimensional freight shipping companies. If your oversized cargo is being delivered by road, your freight rates can vary depending on many factors.

The cost of shipping over dimensional freight can vary due to these factors. Keywords: over dimensional freight rates

Here are 4 factors that affect shipping rates for over-dimensional freight.

1.      Size

For freight to qualify as over-dimensional, its width needs to exceed 8.5 feet. Similarly, if your freight’s height exceeds 14 feet it will be classified as over-dimensional. Continue reading “4 Factors That Affect Shipping Rates For Over Dimensional Freight”

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5 Questions to Ask a Heavy Haul Trucking Company

Hiring a professional trucking company for heaving hauling is extremely important. That’s because, regardless of the size or weight of your equipment, they’ll make sure everything is packaged, loaded, and delivered in a safe and efficient manner.

heavy haul trucking company

 

It’s no secret that heavy haul trucking companies are heavily regulated. As a client, you reserve the right to conduct research and interview the company to make sure they’re adhering to all the regulations and requirements and not putting anyone’s safety at risk.

In this blog post, we’ve prepared a list of questions you need to ask a heavy haul trucking company before hiring their services.

1.     What’s Your Capacity?

The most important thing you need to know about the trucking company you’re willing to hire is if they have the capacity to fulfil your specific needs. Make sure you’re selecting a company that offers a variety of freight options for all kinds of heavy equipment and machinery and covers the most number of regions at a reasonable rate.

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How to Calculate Heavy Haul Freight Rates

Calculating heavy haul freight rates can be a time-consuming task as there are many factors involved and it varies from case to case. Most customers end up calling freight brokers who then get in touch with transport companies to determine the shipping rates and quote an accurate freight rate for their customers.

Wondering how to calculate heavy haul freight rates accurately? Click here to learn about all the factors that are involved.

Needless to say, this entire process is incredibly inefficient and stressful. It’s important to note that sometimes with ‘spot quoting’ shipments, you won’t necessarily be provided with all the factors and by the time you’ve scheduled the shipment, the freight rate may no longer be accurate.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss some of the factors that are involved in quoting heavy haul freight rates. Please note that we won’t be covering actual rates and will only be focusing on the determining factors.

1.     Time of Year

The time of year you’ve scheduled your shipment will contribute to the total cost. Freight rates can change on a monthly, weekly, and even daily basis. Manufacturers often try to schedule shipments at the end of the month to acquire accounting benefits which is why demands for trucks increase around that time and consequently the rates increase as well.

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