If you need to haul heavy equipment, you can attempt to do it yourself, or you can turn the job over to a heavy haulage expert. Doing it yourself requires some special tools and skills. Here's what you need:
1. Haulage Equipment
If you plan to do your own heavy haulage, buying equipment is the biggest investment you have to make. Depending on the type of equipment you need to move, you may need a flatbed trailer, a towing trailer or in some cases, a speciality trailer for each piece of equipment.
2. Items to Contain the Load
In addition to the trailer, you need special items to keep your equipment in place. That may include cargo nets, towing straps and other items that lock the heavy equipment to the trailer. Additionally, if you simultaneously need to transport tools or other small equipment with your heavy equipment, you need tool racks and similar solutions for those items.
3. Defensive Driving Experience
In order to transport heavy equipment, you need a heavy rigid or heavy combination class license. In addition to having the correct license in place, you or whomever drives the truck towing the equipment, should have some defensive driving experience. The right license is essential from a legal and safety perspective. Additionally, having defensive driving experience helps to protect you or whoever is driving from accidents, and that protects your equipment as well.
4.Schedule Flexibility
When you transport your own heavy haulage equipment, you should have some flexibility in your schedule. In particular, you need to be able to alter schedules or transport routes as needed based on the weather. If there are storms, strong winds, heavy rains or other issues that can make driving difficult, those issues will be multiplied when driving heavy haulage equipment. Ideally, you should have ample flexibility that you can put off transport for a day or two as needed based on the weather.
5. Police Escort
Many heavy haulage companies also use a police escort when they travel. The escort acts as a warning car, letting other drivers know that a heavy load is coming. They are also on the scene if anything happens such as an accident. To arrange a police escort, you will need to contact your local police station and talk with them about hiring an escort for the day. Expect to pay a fee for those services.
Arranging your own heavy haulage can be time consuming, and it may require a lot of equipment as well as special skills. Luckily, if you don't have what you need, you can contact a heavy haulage company to handle it for you.
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