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Tips to Consider When Moving Heavy Machinery

Moving heavy equipment is always tricky, and no one is having fun, even the machines.

The task is not only challenging, but also pegged with plenty of risks.

Thankfully, with some planning and preparation, you can safely ensure that your heavy equipment gets from point A to point B without any major problems or damage.

Keep reading, and we’ll walk you through all the steps you need to take to ensure that your heavy machinery moving is a success.

Some of the things you need to do include:

Keep an eye on the land around you.

When moving heavy equipment, it is important to pay attention to the terrain in the area. Before you leave, take the time to carefully plan a route for your chosen mode of transportation. This can help you avoid trouble.

Also, be conversant with the road widths and bridges where you will be transporting your heavy machinery. The driver will be safer if they don’t have to start, stop, turn, or drive through rough terrain.

Also, think about doing a trial run. Driving through a manned checkpoint is a good way to spot any possible dangers that can be avoided ahead of time. Lastly, if you want to make sure that your cargo always gets to its destination safely, you should be aware of the local geography before you leave.

Apply for the right transportation license.

Heavy equipment, like cranes, dump trucks, graders, and scrapers, should be transported with special permits.

To ensure your heavy equipment gets where it needs to go, you must apply for the right transportation permit. Different states have different rules, so you need to find out what they are and make plans based on that.

Getting the necessary permit can take a lot of time, but it’s important for the safety of your equipment and the people who are transporting it. So, set aside time to ensure you have all the necessary permits before starting any transportation job.

Lock down the wheels.

Not only is it important to ensure your equipment is safe by securing the wheels, but locking the wheels also helps reduce risk when moving heavy equipment.

The time it takes to put on the parking brake, and use wedges, chocks, or cradles on the wheels of equipment will be worth it because they will keep the equipment safe.

When locking the wheels, think about weight distribution forces that could happen during transport, such as:

A 50% force in the back when accelerating, changing gears, or going in reverse.
When stopping, 80% of the force goes forward.
When driving uphill or over rough terrain, you stand to have an upward force of up to 20%.
When turning, changing lanes, or braking while turning, you will have a sideways force of 50%.

These steps cut down on accidental movement and make for a smooth ride.

Put signs and flashing lights on vehicles.

The transport vehicles need to have the right banners, signs, and lights on them. In some situations, there needs to be a vehicle on either side to help guide the truck and show it where to go. The other vehicle follows behind to let other drivers on the route know what’s going on.

For all transportation operations to look professional, ensure communication between transport and escort vehicles. You can achieve this using two-way radios, CB radios, or cell phones.

Inspect the equipment even during transport.

For safe and legal transport, heavy cargo must be properly strapped down. During a trip, it’s important to check in often to ensure that the cargo is safe. Safety standards in the industry say that these checks-in should be done at least:

Once during the first 50 miles of travel.
Every 150 miles or every 3 hours, depending on which comes first.
Whenever a driver’s job or station changes.

Ensure that the drivers write down inspections in a transport log so that safety standards are met.

You might be wasting time putting time and effort into running these key checkpoints, but it’s the only way to make sure that cargo is delivered successfully.

For peace of mind, ensure that the heavy equipment movers DC are experienced and have done it before, and know how to do it safely.

5 Reasons to Hire a Heavy Machinery Moving Company

crane moving

There are plenty of reasons you should consider hiring heavy machinery moving company to move your heavy equipment. Some of these reasons include:

To replace the machine

Like any other thing, machines have a lifespan, and once they have crossed their threshold, you have no other way out other than to replace them.

You can also decide to replace the machine after it has become obsolete or damaged beyond repair.

You can hire a heavy machine moving company to help you move the damaged or obsolete machine from the factory to the storage area. The machinery mover will also help bring in the new machine.

To move the machine within the building.

This is known as in-house movement, and it involves moving the heavy machinery from one area to the next, often to create more space or increase efficiency and production.

When you hire the machinery movers, they use the best tools, usually forklifts or air bearings.

To move the heavy machinery across the country.

Sometimes you might be interested in moving your heavy machinery from one factory to another across the country.

While you can buy a completely new machine for the new production line, this isn’t always possible due to limited resources.

Hiring a moving company to move the heavy machinery is much cheaper than buying a new one, which, as you can tell, saves you a lot of money.

When looking to discard the old equipment

While some people store their old machines so that they can use them for parts, others opt to discard their obsolete units altogether.

If this is you, you need to hire a company that will move the heavy machine from your place of work to the area where you want to discard it, usually a scrapyard.

When you are looking to upgrade the machine

For machines to perform at their best, you need to upgrade them. This calls for you to replace the old parts with new ones. You can replace large to small parts depending on the upgrade you want to make.

When looking to upgrade large parts, you may need heavy machinery moving company to help you move the large machine to an area where you can easily work on it.

What should you look for when hiring a machinery moving company?

To get the most from the moving company, you need to hire the right one. What should you consider when hiring?

Experience of the company

How long has the company been around? It’s important to know this as the older the company, the more experienced it is, hence the higher the chances of it providing you an excellent service.

You should work with a company providing heavy machinery moving services for years. This way, you are sure that the company will professionally move your heavy machinery without any hiccups.

Equipment that the company uses

You should know that the equipment the moving company uses to move the heavy machinery influences the speed at which it does it and how safely the process proceeds.

As a rule of thumb, you need to hire a company using the latest equipment. You don’t want to work with a company using old tools that keep breaking down.

Reputation

You don’t want to work with a company with a bad reputation, do you?

Unlike years ago when you could hire an awful company without knowing, things have rapidly changed, and now you can easily find out how reputable a company is, simply by googling the company.

Most people have embraced leaving reviews on various review sites like Facebook, Google, and Yelp.

If you want to know the company’s reputation, you simply need to search for the company name online, and you will find out what the previous customers have to say about it.

You should work with a company with a stellar reputation. The last thing you want is working with heavy equipment movers MD that is a part of a problem, instead of being a solution.

While you should always go for highly reputable companies, you should note that a perfect 5-star record is hard to get, even for the most experienced. If a company has a 4.5-star rating, that’s an excellent company to work with.

Heavy Machinery Moving Company: 6 Ways To Prevent Accidents When Moving Heavy Machinery

When dealing with heavy machinery, there is always the risk of accidents happening. When workers are injured, they not only waste time and money recovering, you also might be required to leave work altogether if the injury is severe.

In some cases, they sue the moving company which throws a spanner in the works. As a heavy machinery moving company, you need to ensure that you maintain the highest levels of safety. You can do this by:

Planning adequately for the move

Regardless of how many years you have been moving heavy machinery, you can’t wake up one day and execute the move. You need to take your time and plan on how to do it safely. The first thing you need to do is to identify a vehicle route with little traffic.

This is to minimize the number of vehicles the truck driver will meet on the way. It also minimizes the chances of the heavy machinery truck hitting people during the move. Using a less-trafficked route also speeds up the move as the driver has fewer distractions.

Plenty of accidents have been reported when picking the machinery. This often happens when there are blind spots at the site. For you to eliminate these accidents, designate a spotter all the time that will safely guide and direct the operator. The spotter will also communicate about any dangers that might be there.

Wearing the right protective gear at all times

It’s common for people to take their safety seriously early on in their careers but as time goes on, and they get used to their duties, they forget all about it. When moving heavy machinery, electrical hazards and falling objects are two of the main causes of injuries and fatalities.

For safety, all the heavy machinery operators and workers should wear the appropriate safety equipment. They should wear steel-toed boots, hard hats, high-visibility clothing, and any other necessary protective items.

Loading and unloading the machinery properly

You might be having the right staff and equipment but if you aren’t keen when loading and unloading the heavy equipment, things are bound to go wrong. Always load the crane or truck on level ground. This is to prevent objects or machinery from rolling over or slipping off the ramps.

Before you start loading, take time to determine the load limit of the machine. The last thing you want is damaging the machinery. If the truck can comfortably carry the machine, ensure that the load is securely in place and can’t fall off.

Keeping the lines of communication open

To ensure that everyone is on the same page, keep the lines of communication open at all times. Ensure that the operators transferring the heavy equipment are communicating with each other and with the people on the site.

The best form of communication is using a two-way radio. Ensure that the radio is working efficiently and there are no cutoffs.

Not leaving anything to chance

As mentioned, heavy machinery is unreliable and anything can happen when you are handling them. For peace of mind, don’t leave anything to chance. Before you move the machine, identify the power sources and lender them inoperable and inaccessible. This is to prevent the machines from starting accidentally.

In rare occasions, the machines release stored energy. To easily curb this when it happens, come up with protocols on how to control them.

Being professional and putting safety first

When people want to move machines, they don’t hire the first company they come across. They research to find a professional company. A professional heavy machinery moving MD company has all the necessary trucks and tools to move a wide range of machines.

The company will also have the right staff for the work. The staff will be properly trained to execute the move fast and safely.

The professional company gives the clients peace of mind as they are sure that their machine will get to the desired destination safely. Professional moving companies are insured; therefore, even if an accident happens, the burden isn’t on the client or the moving company—it’s on the insurance company.

To have more clients coming your way, have properly maintained trucks, work with the right team and ensure that you are insured.