Industries we serve · Machinery and equipment
Machinery and industrial equipment, moved on the right deck
Machinery freight goes wrong in the same three places: the wrong deck shows up, nothing at the site can lift the piece, or the unit was not prepped and something came loose in transit. All three are decided before dispatch, in the description you send us. We run 30–40 ft gooseneck hotshots — one of our largest specialties — alongside flatbed and step-deck, so the answer is usually a deck we already have rather than a compromise.
Have a load that fits? Quotes are per lane, in writing, from a person.
Industries we serve / Machinery and equipment
Fitting the machine to the deck
Start with the piece, not the trailer. Machinery sorts onto a deck by its footprint, its height, and how it gets on and off. We do not publish weight capacities by deck, because the real limit belongs to the combination assigned to your load — the trailer, the tow vehicle's ratings, and how the machine distributes its weight. So: tell the desk the weight, and you get a written yes or no rather than a rule of thumb.
- Hotshot gooseneck (30–40 ft)
- Compact equipment and single machines — self-contained, loaded from outside, not worth a full deck. Goosenecks run with and without ramps.
- Flatbed
- Full-size machines and crated production lines that fill a deck — 48 and 53 ft are the common lengths, loaded from the side, the top or by crane.
- Step-deck
- Tall units. Once the machine would break legal height on a standard flat — commonly around 13′6″, set by state — the drop keeps it legal instead of oversize.
- Still not sure
- Send dimensions, weight and how it loads; the desk names the deck.
Ramps, crane, or forklift
How the machine gets on the deck is the question most often skipped in the first message. Some of our goosenecks run with ramps, so a self-propelled unit can be driven or winched on under its own power — no forklift, no crane. Whether the assigned trailer has ramps is stated at tender and named on the rate confirmation, because a bare deck at a site with no lift is a day nobody gets back.
Without ramps the piece is lifted on, which assumes a forklift or crane with the reach and rating for it at both ends. Arranging that is the shipper's or receiver's side, and the desk says so before dispatch rather than letting it surface at the gate. If nobody at one end has anything, say it early — solvable at quote time, a stopped load at the gate.
Prep the shipper owns
The rest is preparation, and it belongs to whoever releases the machine. None of it is difficult, and all of it separates a unit that arrives the way it left from a claim nobody wanted.
- Fluids — drain or secure what can move or leak, and say what is still in the machine
- Loose attachments — buckets, forks and tooling crated, or positively secured to the unit
- Boom, mast and blade pinned, so the measured height is the travelling height
- Doors, covers and panels latched; anything that can swing gets tied
- Keys and whatever the driver needs to move it onto the deck
- Real dimensions and weight, measured rather than read off the brochure
Oversize and permits
Plenty of machinery clears the legal envelope once it is on the right deck, and that is the cheap outcome — commonly around 13′6″ height, set by state, and 8′6″ width on the Interstate. Freight past those lines is oversize, which is quotable rather than impossible: permits, routing and sometimes escorts, priced per lane with the lead time permits take.
Before an oversize machine moves on our authority, who orders the permits, who plans the routing and who pays for what is agreed in writing. Raise it early with measured dimensions, the lane and the date, and the answer comes back as a plan or a straight no.
How tendering works
Machinery is quoted per lane on a written rate confirmation, with the loading method, the ramps question and every accessorial named before dispatch. Every truck runs an ELD, claims run to 49 CFR Part 370 as published here, and the authority behind the quote is MC #1800150 — check it on SAFER before you tender.
Send these seven and the desk can name the deck and price the lane without a round of questions:
- Commodity — what the freight actually is, in your own words
- Dimensions — length by width by height, per piece and for the whole load
- Total and per-piece weight — how it sits over the axles matters as much as the scale total
- Loading method — dock, forklift, crane or drive-on, and whose equipment does it at each end
- Tarping — whether the freight needs weather protection on the road
- Special handling — permits, appointment windows, residential or limited-access sites
- Origin and destination — the lane sets the routing, the state limits, and the quote
Send the freight and the lane; the desk names the deck and quotes it in writing.
Machinery and equipment freight questions, answered
Can you move a skid steer on a hotshot?
Commonly yes — compact equipment on a gooseneck deck is bread-and-butter hotshot work, one of our largest specialties. Whether your unit fits depends on its footprint, its height with the cab and any attachment, and its weight against the combination assigned to it. Send dimensions and weight for a written yes or no.
Can you load with ramps?
Some of our goosenecks have ramps and some do not, so state it at tender if the machine needs to be driven or winched on; whether the assigned trailer has them goes on the rate confirmation. Without ramps the piece is lifted on by a forklift or crane with the reach and rating for it, which the shipper or receiver arranges.
Do you move machinery cross-country?
Safford, Arizona is our staffed MC headquarters; Sedalia MO, Bolingbrook IL, and Fredericktown OH are equipment domiciles, not offices. Freight moves nationwide; operational hubs in AZ, MO, IL, and OH keep us dense on the I-10 / I-55 / I-70 corridors. A lane running along or between those hubs is one we are already on, so tell the desk the origin and destination. What you will not get is a transit time before we have looked at the lane — distance, routing and hours-of-service rules decide that.
What insurance covers a high-value machine?
A certificate of insurance is available on request before the load moves, and the cargo coverage for your shipment is confirmed in writing for the lane rather than printed as a number on a web page. A figure on a marketing page tells you nothing about your load; a COI naming your shipment tells you everything. Ask the desk, and check the filing on SAFER.