Nationwide Heavy Equipment Shipping & Transport Services

Shipping heavy equipment overseas isn’t billed as a single charge. A shipment typically involves eight to eleven separate charges from different companies: inland trucking to the port, oversize permits, port and terminal handling, export filing, ocean freight, marine insurance, destination handling, customs clearance, duties, and final delivery. 

Heavy Equipment Shipper provides a firm quote for the U.S. leg. The remaining charges come from ports, ocean carriers, customs professionals, and the destination country’s government.

The Charges in an Overseas Equipment Shipment

The table lists the charges that may appear on a typical export and the party that issues each one. Heavy Equipment Shipper ships equipment out of the United States, so the list covers a machine leaving a U.S. yard for a foreign port.

*The line items that apply to your move depend on the route, the ocean mode, and the terms you buy on. A quote that includes more line items isn’t necessarily more expensive than a quote that includes fewer.

Two overseas quotes are harder to compare than two domestic quotes because many charges come from other companies. One company may quote you to the departure port. Another may quote to the arrival port. A third may quote door-to-door and estimate the destination charges. The prices may look comparable, but the three quotes cover different services.

Which Charges Heavy Equipment Shipper Can Quote

We handle the U.S. leg for dealers, contractors, exporters, and private owners:

• Carrier sourcing and vetting, with operating authority and cargo insurance confirmed before we assign a carrier
• Permits and escorts where the machine runs oversize on the way to the port
• Inland transport and terminal coordination, so the machine arrives when the port expects it

Partner companies handle customs work and destination handling. Licensed work goes to the appropriate licensed professional. When you ask what an overseas move costs, you’ll get a firm quote for the part we control and a clear account of the remaining charges.

What Determines the Ocean Freight Cost

Ocean freight doesn’t use a per-mile trucking rate. Two factors drive the ocean rate: how the machine gets on the ship and how the port measures it.

A machine that drives on and off under its own power is the simplest option and usually the cheapest. One that must be lifted needs cranes and a different stow. One that won’t fit a container needs flat rack or breakbulk handling. A non-running machine can rule out the cheapest loading method entirely.

Ports publish their charging basis, and that basis affects the cost. In one published example, the Georgia Ports Authority assesses wharfage on breakbulk and roll-on cargo per net ton and defines that ton as 2,000 pounds. Elsewhere in the same tariff, rates run per measurement ton, defined there as 40 cubic feet. Ask your terminal which basis applies to your machine. A large, relatively light machine can cost very different amounts when priced by volume instead of tonnage.

Plan My Overseas Equipment Shipment

U.S. Export Deadlines and Required Documents

Federal export regulations define a self-propelled vehicle to include self-propelled agricultural machinery, self-propelled construction equipment, and self-propelled special use equipment. An excavator counts as a vehicle under these rules. If it’s used equipment leaving the country, the used-vehicle export requirements apply to it. A few narrow exemptions cover machines that entered the U.S. temporarily, and the partner handling your filing will confirm which case you’re in.

For vehicles exported by vessel, you must present the documentation and the vehicle to Customs at least 72 hours before export. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) also states that you must file Electronic Export Information through the Automated Export System for all used self-propelled vehicles 72 hours before export, regardless of destination, value, or condition.

The required paperwork depends on three ownership situations. Missing these documents can hold a machine at the port:

• Titled machine, owned outright: the original certificate of title or a certified copy, plus two complete copies
• Titled machine with a lien or lease: everything above, plus a separate signed letter from the lienholder on its own letterhead expressly permitting export, naming the machine and its identification number
• Untitled equipment, which covers a great deal of construction iron: the original bill of sale plus two copies, evidence that the jurisdiction doesn’t require titling, and a written certification to Customs that the purchase was a bona fide transaction and the machine isn’t stolen

CBP calls the certificate of title the core requirement in the Customs export process, regardless of the machine’s value, physical condition, or operating order.

Late filing can be costly. The Foreign Trade Regulations provide for a civil penalty of up to $1,100 for each day of delinquency, up to $10,000 per violation. A late filing can also mean a missed sailing and terminal storage until the next one.

Federal Maritime Commission regulations set an invoice deadline for demurrage or detention charges. They require an invoice to be issued within thirty calendar days from the date the charge was last incurred. A separate provision states that failure to include the required minimum information eliminates any obligation to pay the charge. If a storage bill arrives months later or provides no details, question it before paying.

Arrange the lien letter or bill of sale early. We’ll tell you what the partner handling your filing needs well before the machine leaves your yard.

Questions to Ask Before Comparing Export Quotes

The difference between two export quotes is almost always a charge that one company left out. Ask both companies the same questions:

• Where exactly does this quote end: departure port, arrival port, or the delivery address?
• Which ocean mode is priced, and what happens if the machine has to switch modes?
• Are duties and destination taxes excluded, and who estimates them?
• Is marine cargo insurance included, and on what declared value?
• How much free time is included at each terminal before storage starts?
• What’s the currency, and who carries the exchange risk?
• What’s the quote’s expiry date?

A quote’s expiry date matters more for ocean freight than for domestic trucking because ocean rates and fuel surcharges move on their own schedule.

Tell us what machine you’re shipping, where it’s located, and which country it’s going to. We’ll price the U.S. leg and identify the charges outside it. For details on the process and paperwork, here’s how we run an international equipment export.

Get an Export Quote With the Exclusions Listed

Four numbers determine almost everything about an equipment haul: transport length, width, height, and weight. On level ground, set up the machine the way it will travel and measure to the furthest point in each direction. Don’t rely on a manufacturer’s spec sheet. It describes a base machine and often does not list “transport height” at all. Width matters most because 102 inches is the federal legal limit.

Why Manufacturer Spec Sheets Give the Wrong Transport Dimensions

Looking up your model and copying its dimensions may seem reasonable, but that’s how many quotes go wrong. A spec sheet describes one factory configuration of that model. Your machine may have wider tires, a different bucket, duals, tracks instead of wheels, a counterweight the base machine never had, or an aftermarket cab.

Spec sheets also use labels that don’t all mean the same thing, and most do not include a line called “transport height.” Check exactly what each label measures before copying the number.

One job from our records shows the problem. We hauled a marsh buggy excavator that measured 18 feet wide. The standard version of that model is much narrower. Its wide-track undercarriage made the difference, and the base machine’s spec sheet would not have described that load.

How to Measure Transport Length, Width, Height, and Weight

First, set up the machine the way it will travel: blade down, boom stowed, bucket curled and resting, outriggers in, and mast lowered. Then measure to the furthest point in each direction, not just to the machine body.

*Measure on level ground. A machine on a slope or in soft ground will read short on height.

Height is where a missed measurement can cause the most trouble. One published spec sheet shows why.

Consider a 5-yard-class wheel loader. The manufacturer’s own dimension table lists height to the top of the hood at 8 feet 10 inches. Height to the top of the exhaust pipe is 11 feet 2 inches. Height to the top of the ROPS is 11 feet 4 inches. Height to the top of the warning beacon is 12 feet 3 inches.

The same machine has four height figures spanning nearly three and a half feet. Only the tallest one matters at a bridge. If you measure to the hood, your figure is three feet short.

Length and width also depend on the measuring point. For the same loader, overall length without the bucket is listed at 23 feet 1 inch, while shipping length with the bucket level on the ground is 27 feet 4 inches. Width over the tires is 9 feet 3 inches, and the general-purpose bucket measures 9 feet 7 inches. On that machine, the bucket is wider than the tires.

Large dozers can present an even bigger measurement problem. On a published spec sheet for a big track-type tractor, the tractor’s width and the blade’s width sit in two different tables and never get added together, so the sheet never prints the number you actually need.

Other parts that can be the highest or widest point include:

• Exhaust stacks and pre-cleaners
• Beacons, work lights, and antennas
• Cab-mounted air conditioning units
• Mirrors that don’t fold all the way in
• Duals and track pads wider than standard
• Quick couplers and thumbs

If you’re unsure where to place the tape, send us photos and rough measurements. We do this every day and can check your numbers before you rely on a guess.

When Attachments Can Stay On, Be Repositioned, or Ship Separately

Attachments are the most common reason a machine measures larger than its owner expected. An attachment can travel in one of three ways.

• It stays on when the machine remains a legal-size load with the attachment installed and the carrier can fully lower and secure it
• It gets repositioned by curling a bucket in, stowing a boom, or turning a blade. Repositioning is often the difference between legal and permitted
• It travels separately when its width or height cannot be brought within the limits or when it is too large for the same deck

Federal securement rules also affect how attachments travel. For equipment over 10,000 pounds, 49 CFR 393.130 tells the carrier to lower accessory equipment completely and secure it to the trailer before the load moves. That’s the carrier’s job, not yours. For measuring purposes, measure the machine in the position we’ll use to haul it.

If removing a bucket takes a load from permitted to legal, the work is usually worthwhile. Tell us what comes off easily and what doesn’t. We’ll tell you whether the change makes sense on your route.

Have Us Check Your Measurements

Legal Width and Height Limits for Equipment Transport

Width is the limit machines cross most often. The Federal Highway Administration sets the National Network limit at 102 inches, or 8 feet 6 inches. A machine that measures 102 inches is a normal load. At 103 inches, it needs oversize permits in every state it crosses.

Height has no single number to measure against. FHWA sets no federal height limit. States set their own limits, commonly from 13 feet 6 inches at the low end to 14 feet 6 inches at the high end. A machine can meet the height limit in one state and exceed it in the next.

The trailer also counts toward the load’s total height. The height on the road is the machine height plus the deck height. That’s why we ask for the machine first and choose the trailer second.

A lift and an ag sprayer from our job records show why width can matter more than weight. The lift measured 8 feet wide, weighed 18,500 pounds, and moved as a normal load on a hotshot trailer. The ag sprayer weighed 14,000 pounds, four and a half thousand pounds less, and measured 12 feet wide. The lighter machine was the oversize one. Width often affects a shipment more than weight.

What to Send Us If You Can’t Measure the Machine Yourself

You don’t need a survey crew. Ten minutes with a tape on level ground gets you close enough to plan around. Photos from the front, both sides, and the rear help us catch any point you missed. If you can’t get to the machine, tell us where it is and who is there.

Send the year, make, and model, the four measurements, and the two locations. Before assigning a truck, we check the measurements against the trailer deck and route clearances. That helps pickup day go as planned. For the full planning process, see what goes into planning an equipment move.

Get My Machine Measured and Quoted