Project cargo? List the pieces first.

We move the pieces of a project by road: legal loads on our trucks and abnormal ones on our 5 gooseneck lowbeds and 5 step decks, with the permits, police escorts where needed, a risk analysis and a method statement. Our site doesn’t describe project cargo management as a service of its own, so tell us about the whole project and we’ll confirm what we take on.

A piece is abnormal when it can’t travel inside the legal limits on a typical trailer: 2.6 m wide (reg 223(b)), 4.3 m high from the road (reg 224(b)), 18.5 m long for a truck-tractor and semi-trailer (reg 221(d)), and the legal mass, never more than 56 t for the combination (regs 236, 237). A permit is only for a load that can’t be split.

It comes down to height and mass. A flat deck sits about 1.4 m off the road, so a legal piece is up to about 2.9 m high; a step deck’s lower deck about 1.05 m (about 3.25 m); a lowbed’s well about 0.55 m (about 3.75 m), and the lowbed carries the heaviest pieces. Typical figures, not our trailers’ own. For one tall load, see abnormallowbedservices.co.za.

The load list plans about 30 t a load, by the deck’s length, with two pieces side by side when each is 1.25 m wide or less and nothing stacked. A real load plan also weighs the axles, the lashing points and where each piece’s centre of gravity sits, so we confirm the trucks in the quote.

Yes. We apply for permits through all the provinces on the route, arrange police escorts where they’re needed, and work to a documented transport strategy and method statement after a risk analysis. To get your load’s details together for the permit, use the move brief on abnormaltrucks.co.za.

The national guidelines set no processing time, and each province issues its own permits, so plan ahead. Police escorts need at least 72 hours’ notice before the journey.

4.3 m from the road for the whole load. In a lowbed’s well that leaves about 3.75 m for the piece. Taller than that, bridges and lines on the route must be cleared; over 4.7 m an own escort runs ahead with a height gauge (TRH 11), and over 5.5 m Telkom and 5.8 m Eskom must give safe passage.

2.6 m without a permit. Wider loads fall into TRH 11’s classes, from D1 (up to 2.75 m wide and 27 m long) to D6, and over 3.5 m wide they call for special markings and escorting.

That depends on each load’s width and overall length, and on the route; the permit sets the conditions. Our escort check on truckescortservices.co.za works them out for one load, and we arrange police escorts where they’re needed.

Our crane trucks serve the power utilities and heavy industries, and we handle heavy lifts of 1 to 50 tons under direct control at our Germiston depot. For a lift at your site, ask us: tell us the piece, its lifting points and the site.

The list: each piece with its length, width, height and mass, how many, and where its lifting points are; where it comes from and goes to; the site access at each end; and the dates. For a container load, the permit asks for the container’s number and a shipping bill describing the contents and mass.

Our site doesn’t state cross-border moves. Tell us the route and we’ll confirm. We don’t publish prices: answer the short questions and we quote on your project.