How To Choose A Heavy Machinery Transport Company

Choosing a company to ship heavy machinery means you’ll have to do a little digging to find out some details about the options you’re considering. Just like any other service that has a high price point, it’s important to do your due diligence, both so that you get the best service at the right price, and so that you don’t end up with lengthy delays or damaged goods upon delivery. Here are some of the steps you can take to ensure that you find the right heavy equipment and machinery transport company.

Know What You Need

As the old saying goes, “Knowing is half the battle,” but in terms of transporting heavy machinery it’s considerably more than half the battle. Before you contact any transport services with your request, make sure you have all the details pinned down to the specifics. This includes not just where you need machinery shipped to and from, but what type of machinery, the dimensions, the weight, and any other information that may be pertinent to the shipper (they’ll help guide you through this process.) Once you’ve gathered all the relevant information, you can move on to the next step: verifying their information.

Verify Licensing & Safety Procedures

Heavy machinery is expensive and often delicate, which means you need an experienced company to ship it, whether it’s to another area of the U.S., or overseas. In either case, you should verify that a company has a valid license and safety procedures in place to safely transport heavy and oversized cargo. You can learn about the legal requirements of this process by visiting the website for the FMCSA, which also has a portal you can use to look up specific information about a company. Be sure that you also ask the company itself if it can provide feedback on these topics, which you can then cross reference with the information from the FMCSA to make sure it’s accurate and up to date.

A-1 Auto Transport has been shipping heavy machinery for more than 20 years. With offices located in virtually every major metro area of the U.S., there’s no job that’s too big or too far for us! To learn more about our services, or if you have any questions, please contact us today at 1-800-452-2880! You can also get a FREE estimate by contacting us online through our request form and an agent will get back to right away!

Get An Estimate

After you’ve determined the services you need and surveyed a few companies that can provide it, you’re ready to contact transport companies to get an estimate. Cost is always an important factor in the transport industry and every company should be willing to provide you with a free estimate. If a company doesn’t offer free price quotes for their services, that’s typically a red flag that something fishy is going on since it’s an industry wide standard.

Compare Prices

It’s a good practice to get a price estimate from several companies before making a decision as to which one you’ll be using. As you might expect, some companies will have higher or lower prices than others, so it’s time well spent to call around and get a couple estimates—something that is made much easier if you’ve followed the advice from step one of figuring out precisely what you need done. Typically, you’ll be able to get a good feel for the price range if you contact a handful of companies with your request. We recommend reaching out to at least three companies before deciding on one, and even better if you can raise that number to five or more. The more companies you get an estimate from (which is free, remember), the better chances you have of saving some money along the way, while still dealing with reputable shipper that has the experience and professionalism required to do the job.