With the changing of the season upon us, we are already feeling the colder weather and soon the snow will be in air.  If it isn’t already for some areas of the country.  So, you may be asking yourself, how will the cold weather affect my transportation of equipment?

 The main thing that can be affected by weather is that your transit time can be longer than normal or even delayed by days.  If your shipment requires oversize permits for transport during the winter season, keep in mind that the amount of time a permitted load can be on the road is reduced due to less daylight hours.  Oversize loads can only travel during daylight hours.  With the shorter days in the winter season, it can take a few extra days for delivery.  Also with permitted loads, they must abide by each States rules regarding when it is safe to travel due to weather and road conditions.  An oversize load can be shut down for hours or days if the roads are snow/ice packed and the State issues a no travel ban on permitted loads.

 Loading and unloading of the equipment can be quite difficult in the winter weather and could take longer to perform.  The equipment may not start or frozen up and not move.  Winter weather can make the easiest tasks into very difficult and time consuming projects.  For example, tarping is fairly easy in the summer months when the tarp is nice and warm.  However, to put a tarp on a load in the cold winter temperatures, that is a different story.  The tarp may be so cold that it is frozen to itself if it wasn’t properly rolled back up the last time it was used.

 Safety is the number one concern!!  There is not a shipment of any kind that is worth a Driver to risk their lives or the lives of anybody that is out sharing the roads with them in order to make a specific delivery time.

 So keep in mind these things when you are looking to book a shipment with anybody.  Mother Nature may have other things in mind and may not cooperate!