If you’re constructing a large-scale project in one location, but your equipment and warehouse are situated in another city, you’ll need to move your equipment soon. It’s natural to feel worried about the transportation costs of heavy equipment, as it could require hefty costs if you don’t prepare the process early on. Fortunately, this guide will give you some insights into reducing your heavy equipment transportation costs.
Freight is crucial for a construction company that needs to move its tools and equipment to another area. Fortunately, there are many reliable transport logistics to choose from today. They offer hauling services for your trucks, machinery, and other heavy loads. There are many ways to optimize these moving costs as they could be a priority for your business operations.
Check out these ways for some effective freight cost reduction.
- Consider Renting Heavy Equipment Locally
If you need to move your cranes, bulldozers, and trucks to the site, you can potentially save money by assessing whether it’s necessary or if there are any other cost-effective choices. Construction project owners or managers often decide, for example, that renting locally is more cost-effective than renting from a central location. Perhaps you can find a local heavy equipment company that can rent out from a site nearer to your construction project area.
This is a viable option for projects far from your current construction site or trusted vendor. The new site could mean hundreds of miles away from where your equipment is stored. With many heavy pieces of equipment needed to complete a single job, it may not be economically practical to transport everything to the job site. One alternative is to properly plan and sort which equipment to transport and which ones to rent from a local source.
It’s also essential to remember that some equipment may be more difficult to transport than others, and they may only be required for specific tasks. It’s best to forego them, especially if your construction workers can perform the task using alternative machines.
- Be Flexible and Adaptable
Flexibility and adaptability in your transportation modes could enable you to offset losses in unforeseen ways. Sometimes, you need to think out of the box to save costs on your freight shipping. For instance, you realize that shipping by sea is cheaper than by air. Unfortunately, it requires more time, which means eventually incurring losses. Waiting for your equipment to arrive means days and days wasted on your project.
Take a look at various modes of transportation, and don’t be afraid to change if necessary. You can combine two different modes of transportation if feasible. If you typically use only one mode of transportation, intermodal transport offers you another option you may not have considered. You can also consider transporting your equipment by train. It’s known to be cheaper than trucking.
On the other hand, explore advanced trucking technologies and see how they can save you on costs when transporting your equipment. For instance, the use of telematics ensures unnecessary delays during transport are avoided. Delay truly means money lost.
Finally, you can segregate all your freight to prioritize which needs to arrive quickly. For instance, you can ship those by air and settle for sea or vessel shipping for those items that don’t need to be rushed.
- Consider Reducing Cargo Size Or Weight
The common rule for freight shipment is that larger and heavier loads are usually more expensive to haul than ones that are smaller and lighter. It may be better to disassemble the equipment and transport it in a number of loads rather than one to cut costs. However, ensure that your team can reassemble the equipment.
Each state has different requirements about what constitutes large and heavy loads. Knowing these requirements results in less hassles or possible impractical outcomes.
Freight specialists should be consulted about making the weight and size of the equipment more manageable before hiring them to move the equipment. A load becomes subject to the jurisdiction of any states involved in the trip once its weight reaches a certain threshold. As a result, splitting the weight across multiple loads may save you some money by not requiring heavy cargo permits.
- Explore Containerized Cargo
As mentioned, disassembling machines can lead to less costs. To make the shipment safer and more secure, consider using container vans. A bulldozer can be shipped in a standard container at a 50 percent or more discount over sea vessel transportation or air freight. Although disassembling and reassembling cost money, the shipper still wins through containerized cargo.
- Reduce Labor Cost Through Automatic Loading System
With the help of an automatic container loading system, you can reduce labor costs, avoid product damage, save production costs, and still be more productive. Automation is the future of trucking, not to mention that this also expedites the process.
Determine whether a warehouse operation can be made more efficient by reducing labor. A software system for managing warehouse work is available. When your overhead cost decreases, you can save significant money for the entire freight shipping process.
- Pack Heavy Equipment Securely
It’s often possible to save money by ensuring that no space is wasted on a truck or a trailer. One way is to tightly pack your heavy equipment to optimize space and ensure safety. People may be forced to make several trips to transport everything if they don’t use all the available space. When people take time to figure out how to maximize space, they can sometimes move everything all at once.
If an equipment trailer only contains one item or is packed to capacity, you’ll need to pay for the same expenses for gas, permits, and other related costs. Hence, it’s practical to devise an effective plan in which items are transported together, and pay close attention to their sizes, weight, and packing requirements.
Conclusion
Finding the best way to reduce transportation costs takes time and effort. Fortunately, this guide has shown you some practical tips and tricks to save on your heavy freight costs. The ideal strategy will vary depending on the equipment being moved and your business requirements.
- U.S. Energy Media Staffhttps://oilmanmagazine.com/author/oilmanwp/
- U.S. Energy Media Staffhttps://oilmanmagazine.com/author/oilmanwp/
- U.S. Energy Media Staffhttps://oilmanmagazine.com/author/oilmanwp/
- U.S. Energy Media Staffhttps://oilmanmagazine.com/author/oilmanwp/
- U.S. Energy Media Staffhttps://oilmanmagazine.com/author/oilmanwp/
- U.S. Energy Media Staffhttps://oilmanmagazine.com/author/oilmanwp/
- U.S. Energy Media Staffhttps://oilmanmagazine.com/author/oilmanwp/
- U.S. Energy Media Staffhttps://oilmanmagazine.com/author/oilmanwp/
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