Most construction delays that get blamed on weather or labor are logistics failures, and they are visible weeks in advance if anybody is looking. A machine that arrives before there is anywhere to put it, a delivery that cannot get through the gate, a lowboy that cannot make the turn onto the site road, a crane with no room to set up: these are planning problems, and they cost more than the equipment rental does. Here is how to plan equipment onto a site, and back off it, the way the transport carrier will actually have to do it.
Check the Access as a Lowboy Would
Walk the route from the public road to the pad as if you were driving a tractor and lowboy with a combined length near 80 feet and a loaded weight that can pass 150,000 pounds. Turning radius at the gate. Overhead power and telephone lines at the entrance and along the site road. Culverts and temporary bridges and what they are rated for. Soft ground after rain, because a loaded lowboy on wet fill is a recovery job, not a delivery. Where the machine will actually come off the trailer, and whether that spot is level, firm and clear of the work.
Do this before the first machine is ordered, not the morning it arrives. A site that fails one of these checks is not a site that cannot take equipment. It is a site that needs a staging area on firm ground near the entrance, agreed with the carrier in advance, and the machine walks or is shuttled from there.
Sequence Deliveries Backward From the Work
Equipment arrives in the order the work needs it, not the order the rental yard has it available. Clearing and grubbing equipment first, then earthmoving, then the compaction and paving fleet, then the cranes and lifts as the structure rises. Each machine should arrive a day or two before its first task, with somewhere to park that is out of the way of the machines already working. Ordering the whole fleet for the first week produces a site full of idle iron in the way of the excavator that actually has something to do.
Delivery Windows and What the Carrier Needs
A heavy haul carrier delivers inside a window, and the window is realistic only if the carrier knows the truth about the site. Give the coordinator the machine’s operating weight from the manufacturer’s plate or a certified scale, the transport dimensions with attachments in their travel position, whether it drives on and off under its own power, and what loading equipment exists at each end. Oversize or overweight loads need permits for every state on the route, and those permits set the travel days and the hours the load may move. Any permit or escort cost is itemized in the quote before you confirm, never discovered on the invoice.
Name a contact on site who will be there when the truck arrives, with a phone that is answered. A driver who arrives to a locked gate and no answer is a driver who leaves, and the next window is days away. Our equipment shipping page covers the carrier types, and the oversized and heavy equipment page covers permits, escorts and superloads.
The Last Mile
Many sites are fine for a lowboy right up to the last few hundred yards. A staging yard on firm ground at the entrance solves most of that. The machine comes off the trailer there, on level ground, and tracks or is shuttled to the work. For excavators and dozers that is normal. For a paver, a compactor or a light tower it may mean a smaller trailer for the last leg, which the coordinator arranges before dispatch. Our excavator, bulldozer and dump truck pages describe how each machine loads and what it needs at the pickup and delivery ends.
Ground Bearing Is Not Optional
Fill that supports a pickup truck does not support a loaded lowboy. Before the first heavy delivery, know where the compacted haul roads are, mark them, and keep the carrier on them. A trailer that sinks to the axles on the approach ties up the machine, the truck, the driver and whatever has to pull it out, and the delay is measured in days. Crane mats or a stabilized pad at the unloading point cost a fraction of that.
Move-Out Is a Delivery in Reverse
Equipment leaving the site needs the same planning as equipment arriving, and it usually gets less. Clean the undercarriage and the tracks, because a machine caked in a foot of clay is overweight, over height and, crossing some state lines, an agricultural inspection problem. Lower blades and buckets to their transport positions, retract stabilizers, pin the articulation. Confirm the machine still runs, or declare that it does not so a winch or crane is sent. Book the outbound move when the machine’s last task is scheduled, not on the day it finishes, so the truck is there when the machine is idle rather than three days later.
Common Questions
How much lead time does a heavy haul move need? A week or two for a legal-dimension machine, three to four weeks when oversize permits are involved, and longer for a superload that needs route surveys or escorts.
Who arranges permits? We do, for every state on the route, and the cost is itemized in the quote before you confirm.
What if the machine will not start at pickup? Declare it at booking and a carrier with a winch, or a crane where the weight requires one, is dispatched. A surprise at pickup usually means a second trip.
Can attachments travel with the machine? Removable buckets, blades and implements can ship on the same trailer if declared and secured, or separately if they push the load over a legal limit. Tell the coordinator what is attached.
Does the site need to provide loading equipment? Usually not for a machine that drives on and off. For non-operational units or components, tell the coordinator what exists on site so the right equipment is sent.
Get a Quote
Heavy equipment goes through the freight desk. Put the machine, its weight and dimensions, both locations and your dates into the freight quote calculator, or call (866) 452-3657 and a coordinator who moves equipment onto job sites every week will plan the delivery with you. No deposit is taken until a carrier is assigned to your order.
