Maybe you’ve bought a used excavator from a dealer in another country. Or you’ve made the winning bid on equipment from a recently-closed factory thousands of miles away. There are many reasons for shipping machinery overseas, many decisions to make along the way and many opportunities to ensure trouble-free, cost effective transit – if you have the necessary capabilities.
Ocean container shipping has become very expensive – in some cases triple what it was pre-pandemic. So, you don’t want to ship more containers than needed for your volume of freight. That requires smart ocean container loading.
Cargo that doesn’t fit in a container costs more to ship than cargo that does. It's also way more complicated to ship out of gauge cargo via ocean. A lot more rules to be followed to ensure safety and security, door to door. All that complexity creates time and headaches for shipping departments.
To ease the burden on your staff, and your wallet, we put together a detailed online eBook that covers just about every aspect of shipping out of gauge cargo globally. Link to that eBook here.
Transporting oversize cargo (also called out of gauge – or OOG – cargo) is a highly-specialized discipline. If you don’t understand the process in detail, you could end up wasting a lot of time and money, and maybe even breaking the law. Here are six big mistakes to avoid when you’re shipping OOG cargo.
Oversize freight often crosses the ocean in specialized containers, especially on flat racks. But for some cargo, break bulk shipping is a better option. Here’s a look at what can make break bulk a good choice for oversize freight, with some advice about how to ship break bulk successfully.
Out of gauge cargo – cargo that doesn’t fit in a standard shipping container – poses extra risks on the road. That’s why state DOTs regulate OOG cargo and require truckers who transport it to get special permits.
Complying with state regulations for oversize cargo helps ensure that your load will arrive on time, undamaged and without any legal problems.
Out of gauge cargo shipping often presents you with a choice. Is it better to transport the oversize load in a specialized ocean container? Or should you use roll-on, roll-off (RO-RO) service?
Here are some questions to consider as you choose the most efficient and cost-effective way to ship out of gauge cargo.
Say you need to move the machines from three shuttered US factories into a facility overseas. Or you’re providing several huge components needed to build an offshore oil rig. When you transport those items, that shipment is called heavy lift project cargo.
Project cargo might require multiple containers, it’s often heavier and bigger than the average ocean shipment, and it poses some special challenges:
Shipping an oversize load costs more than shipping cargo that fits in a conventional ocean container. That’s just a fact of life.
But the more you know about how the cost of oversize shipping adds up, the more easily you can find ways to shave some dollars off the total.
Let’s look at the factors that add expense to an oversize shipment:
When the item you ship is too tall or wide for a regular shipping container, that’s called out of gauge, or oversize, cargo.
Just as out of gauge freight doesn’t fit neatly into a box, out of gauge transport doesn’t fit into a simple process. This kind of international shipping comes with complicated challenges. So it takes special skill and experience to manage a successful transit.
