Are You Prepared to Handle Your Own Heavy Haulage Needs?
Posted on: 7 June 2019
If you own a growing business with facilities dotted around the country, then you may face certain challenges as you continue to expand. For a variety of different reasons, you now need to transport heavy or unusual items from one region to another, and this will involve a different type of transportation from what you're used to. Should you take on these heavy haulage responsibilities yourself, and if so, what do you need to consider?
Big League
Certainly, heavy haulage is a different animal compared to traditional truck transportation. You may need to consider extra requirements if you have to move particularly heavy objects, dangerous goods or pressurised content from point to point. In every case, you need to ensure that your planning is first class.
Route and Permissions
For example, figure out the route that you will need to take in order to haul your goods most effectively. You may not necessarily be allowed to do so at any time of the day and will invariably have to get special permission for the much larger equipment or restricted goods. The size and nature of your load will dictate your route to a large extent and you'll certainly have to talk with not just planners but police authorities as well, in order to get the right type of permission. They will all want to see that you have the capacity to pull this off safely and will want to check your documentation carefully.
Equipment and Staff
Next, you'll have to line up the proper equipment to transport your goods. Typical road transportation vehicles will probably not do due to the dimensions of your load. You have to ensure that your towing tractor is capable of pulling a much larger trailer as well and will need to make sure that you have the right staff available to handle the challenge. Do your current drivers have a sufficient amount of training and skill, or will you need to send them out for advanced training?
Identification
Don't underestimate the responsibility here, especially if you have pressurised or dangerous content to transport. You need the right type of documentation, but your vehicles will also have to be marked with clear signage to make others aware of any potential risk.
Security
Safety is, of course, paramount whenever the rig is on the road. You will have to get the right type of restraints and make sure that you have people on hand to secure the load before it sets off. Once again, this may require additional training and will certainly imply extra responsibility.
Better Option
All in all, it may be best for you to outsource this entire project to heavy haulage experts instead. They will be able to take care of all these restrictions as part of their service.
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