Determining If Your Cargo Shipment Requires An Over-Dimensional Transport Permit
Moving cargo that exceeds overland weight, height, or length shipping standards requires planning, permitting, and patience. Not to mention a bigger budget. With technical exemptions, legislative changes, and changing road conditions, navigating the over-dimensional permitting and logistical process is complex. And, if you’re transporting an overweight or wide load through multiple states, the complexity soars. Truth is though, even transporting a wide load from one interstate off ramp to off ramp requires adherence to state limits, permitting requirements, scheduling restrictions.
Here are three key points to consider to determine your freight transport permitting requirements:
- Know your cargo metrics - Knowing the length, width, height, and weight of your cargo is the first step. Getting it right could mean the difference between jumping through permit hoops or not.
- Know the over-dimensional standards for your scheduled route - Overlaying the load metrics with route requirements will identify if any of your metrics exceeds any of the over-dimensional limits for any part of your route. But it’s not the final answer.
- Know if a Wide-Load/Over-Dimensional Permit is needed - The final decision is not as simple as knowing your load’s metrics and any one state’s baseline over-sized transport standards. Factors range from the type of transport vehicle to the time of year your shipping to grandfathered exemptions.
There is a lot that goes into each of these steps. Expertise and experience will help you get the best final answer for your shipment.
Over-dimensional transport logistics can be complicated. But with knowledge and planning, and a reputable, experienced transport company, oversize load management can meet scheduling and budget requirements.
We’ll be discussing the details in navigating the process in upcoming posts.
