5 things to know before booking Transport Services

Often the delivery of goods is the last piece in the process of manufacturing or providing your product to your customer.  Done well, it enhances your service/product.  Done badly, it can damage your reputation and lose you customers.  For peace of mind you need a company with experience, quality equipment and a good reputation to ensure your business doesn’t fail at the final hurdle. 

This guide is designed to help you make an informed decision on hiring a haulage company and making the process as smooth as possible!

1. Load details

The size and weight of your load will determine a number of things.  For example, the type of vehicle and trailer to be used, the route to be taken and crane to be used to load it (if required).  If it’s an unusual size or shape photos can help, send these on to your transport company beforehand to help with the planning process.  Anything over 2.9m wide or high qualifies as an abnormal load.  This may have further requirements like escort vehicle, Police notifications and specialist routing which the haulage company will be able to advise on.

2. Loading & unloading

Consider how your load will be put on the truck at the pick-up point and removed at the drop off point.  Depending on the size and weight this can vary from using a fork lift truck, lorry mounted crane/Hiab or some smaller items can be loaded by hand.

3. Locations

You’re likely to know where you want the items delivered to and from.  Even if you’re not clear on exact address details, being able to give a good idea of locations will help plan the transport company’s fleet movements and generate the best quote.

4. Access

Trucks come in a variety of shapes and sizes which can suit a number of scenarios.  Knowing whether there are any space or access restrictions will impact on which vehicle is sent to the job.  At Galt Transport we have a variety of artic and rigid vehicles, low loader trailers and 4x4 varieties to ensure we have the right truck for a variety of jobs that’s why we’d recommend finding a haulage firm with a good variety of vehicles if your load isn’t straight forward.  If in doubt, providing measurements of access or providing photos of the space involved will help assess the situation and plan the delivery.  For more complex jobs you may require a site visit.  Most reputable haulage firms will offer this service and it’s worthwhile to ensure everything goes smoothly. 

5. Timings

You may have specific times and dates in mind for when you would like your delivery to be picked up/arrive at your destination.  However if you have more flexibility this can help with planning and often pricing.  We usually allow for up to 1 hour for loading and unloading but if you think it may take longer, let us know and we can build this into timings and costs.

Now that you know what to expect, you can book your transport services with confidence.  If you still have questions or are unsure about any part of the process, get in touch with our traffic team who will be more than willing to help.