Super Heavy Haul Costs

I own a small crane (36,000, Grove RT60S) and operate it myself also. Never been in trouble yet with it.

 

It’s not that uncommon. The brokers that handle big freight are not the same brokers peddling toilet paper loads. They are just as specialized as the carriers that pull them.

 

Actually he works for a forwarder not a broker, there’s difference.

 

realizing there's two threads in one here. (and I'm learning tons in both). I've noticed crane operators have gotten a boost locally from the oil industry. The oil boomlet needs tons of cranes and thus they are willing to take risks on new guys working their way up very fast. so you have some young guys who have their certifications and are in the cranes but don't have a ton of experience and then you have the 40+ year old set who worked their way thru the slow times, and maybe 5 to 10 years in one type, then a little bigger, then another 3 to 5 years, then etc.

All of the old guys are amazing.

some the young guys are pretty good. (and some are freaking terrible).

Of course crane operators don't get any mistakes, at all.

 

I’ve told the young guys the have an unprecedented opportunity right now. There’s so much work you can get in anywhere and if you make yourself valuable you’ll be in good shape even in the bad times. A crane operator buddy of mine called me Thursday, he’s in Alabama on a pipeline project and he was saying that the young guys now have it made compared to us when we were oilers. He went clear through the apprenticeship as an oiler before he got on a crane. They have second year guys and 1st year permit hands running rigs like Catalina’s aquatintence.

We have a hiring hall so technically we’re not supposed to hire off the street. The union told us if you find a guy hire him and we’ll put him in. The work is crazy right now.

 

What's the difference? Thanks in advance

 

The biggest technical difference is a freight forwarder takes possession of the freight where as a broker does not.

 

The forwarder also has DOT authority and has skin in the game as opposed to a broker that just puts two people in contact.

 

I’ve moved these loads before, although we only do local moves. In our crew, you have the lead man (the boss) in a pilot or chase vehicle, he watches everything and keeps in radio contact with everybody else on the move. Then you have the trailer operator, which can also be the lead man, depending on how complex the move is. Then you have the pilots, who are watching everything and keeping in constant communication with everybody on the move. Then you have the driver, which probably has the least amount of responsibility of the move. The driver needs to be of high caliber, and know what he’s doing, but he just does what everybody else on the crew tells him to. The better the driver, and familiarity of the setup he’s pulling, the less direction you have to give, but he still operates the truck at the direction of everybody else.

One of the hardest positions is a push truck driver. A good one will keep up and you never even know he’s back there, a bad one can really screw you up. A auto-trans push truck is much easier than a standard, but a good driver can run a standard push truck smooth as silk. You doing a load with a push and pull truck, you put your best driver in the push truck.

 

There really is no standard axle weights on these big setups, but they will usually allow you more weight per axle line on a dual lane configuration, and most of the time you have to have a overall width of 16’ to be considered “dual lane”.
What normally happens is a engineer draws up a trailer configuration with proposed weights, and submits it to the states for approval. Everything is on a case by case basis, and all route obstacles are considered. Sometimes it’s just easier to submit a dual lane trailer and it can make bridge inspections and approval easier.

All of our big moves are local. We typically can get by with a smaller setup than a multi-state move can, just due to the fact you have less bridge inspections and less state officials to deal with.