Heavy, Oversized & One-Off Moves · Canada & USA
Transformers, vessels, machinery and structural sections moved on surveyed routes with permits, escorts and a lifting plan agreed before anything is loaded, carried on the same specialist trailers behind our flatbed freight services solutions.
Surveyed Before It Is Booked
the route decides everything else
Surveyed
Route checked before commitment
Permitted
Approvals arranged in advance
Engineered
Lifting and securing plans
One Contact
From survey through to delivery
The Basics
Project cargo is freight that cannot move under normal conditions because of its size, weight, shape or value. A transformer weighing eighty tonnes, a pressure vessel wider than a traffic lane, a bridge section longer than the vehicle carrying it. These loads need permits from every authority whose road they cross, coordinated through the same professional cross-border logistics network when a route spans provinces or states, escorts to manage traffic, sometimes temporary removal of street furniture, and equipment engineered for the specific piece. The word project matters as much as the word cargo. Each one is a one-off with its own plan, its own approvals and its own schedule, closer to a small engineering job than to a delivery.
Planning First
On a normal shipment the route is the driver’s problem. On a project move it is the first question, because the load’s dimensions decide whether a journey is possible at all. A survey works backwards from the delivery point, checking bridge heights and weight limits, turning radii at every junction, overhead cables, road camber, temporary works and whether the final approach can physically take the vehicle once it arrives. It is common for the shortest route to be unusable and for a longer one to be the only legal option. Occasionally the survey concludes that the piece has to be split, or delivered by water and moved on from port through our professional drayage trucking service, or that a section of street furniture needs removing with the authority’s agreement. All of that is far cheaper to discover on a survey than with a loaded trailer stopped at a bridge.
Our Services
Planning the move, then executing it.
Planning & Approvals
The survey, engineering and permissions that decide whether and how the move happens.
Execution & Coordination
Running the move itself and everything connected to it.
Cargo Types
Pieces that will not travel any other way.
Transformers & Generators
Industrial Machinery & Presses
Tanks, Vessels & Silos
Structural & Bridge Sections
Wind & Energy Components
Complete Plant Relocations
Plant relocations are the outlier on that list, because the cargo is not one piece but an entire working facility that has to be shut down, disconnected, moved and made to work again somewhere else, with smaller equipment and tooling often moved through our cargo van freight shipping service alongside the heavy lifts. The logistics are secondary to the sequencing: which machine comes out first, what has to be running again by which date, and how much production is lost between the two. These jobs are planned backwards from the restart date rather than forwards from the shutdown, with our reliable expedited freight services held in reserve for the pieces that end up on the critical path, and the transport is usually the most predictable part of the whole exercise.
The Non-Negotiables
Bridge heights, weight limits, turning radii and the final approach checked physically before any commitment is made.
Each province, municipality and road authority the load crosses has its own approval and its own lead time.
Pilot vehicles, police involvement where required and timing that keeps the load off the road at the worst hours.
How the piece is lifted, by what, from where it stands, with the ground conditions checked to take the crane.
The sequence agreed in advance so everyone on site is working to the same plan on the day.
A single project manager across survey, permits, transport and lifting, because these moves fail at the handovers between specialists.
Pricing
Every project move is priced individually from its own plan, since no two are the same.
What the piece is, and what equipment it demands
Distance, jurisdictions crossed and approvals needed
Cranes, jacking or specialist equipment
Timing constraints and site readiness
Give us the weight, the dimensions and the two addresses. We will tell you quickly whether the move is straightforward, difficult or needs a different approach entirely.
What Clients Say
“The survey found that the direct route had a bridge we could not use and the alternative added ninety kilometres. Knowing that six weeks out meant we rescheduled the lift rather than discovering it with the load already on the road.”
Project Engineer
Energy Infrastructure Firm, Burlington
“We moved an entire production line to a new facility over four phases. What mattered was the sequencing rather than the trucks. They planned it backwards from the date we had to be producing again and we hit it.”
Plant Director
Industrial Manufacturer, Milton
Common Questions
Anything that cannot travel under normal conditions because of its size, weight or shape, and therefore needs permits, escorts, engineered lifting or a surveyed route.
As early as you have dimensions. Permits have lead times set by each authority, and surveys sometimes change the plan, so early contact costs nothing and late contact limits the options.
A physical check of the intended journey covering bridge heights, weight restrictions, turning radii, overhead obstructions and the final approach, confirming the load can actually get there.
We do, across every jurisdiction the load passes through. Requirements and timescales vary by province and municipality.
Lifting is coordinated as part of the move, including the lifting plan and ground condition checks, so transport and lift are planned together rather than separately.
Yes. Many project moves are multi-modal, and port handling and customs are coordinated as part of the same project.
Yes. Plant relocations are planned backwards from the date production must restart, and usually run in phases rather than as one move.
That is sometimes the survey's conclusion. Splitting the piece, changing the route or using a different mode are all normal outcomes, and better identified during planning.
Route surveys, permits, lifting plans and one person accountable throughout. Send us the dimensions and we will tell you what is involved.
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