Construction Freight Requirements
What a jobsite delivery has to satisfy before the material is any good to the crew.
Specifications
Construction Delivery Requirements at a Glance
What a jobsite delivery has to satisfy before the material is any good to the crew.
| Requirement | The specification | What it means for the load |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery window | A date set backward from the pour, the erection start or the inspection, often inside a city delivery curfew and a crane window measured in hours | The pickup is scheduled from the site's window, and the driver calls ahead so the crane is not paid to wait on a gate |
| Offload method | Crane, telehandler or boom truck supplied by the site, rated on its load chart at the radius of the heaviest piece. No dock, no leveler, rarely a forklift | Offload equipment, piece weights and pick radius are confirmed before dispatch, and side loading equipment is assigned instead of a rear load box |
| Site access | Posted bridge limits, low clearances, turning radius on residential and downtown streets, gate hours, ground conditions after rain | Route checked to the gate, not to the zip code, and trailer length dropped or the load split when the last mile will not take a full length unit |
| Documentation | Bill of lading carrying the job name and lot or phase, mill test reports on steel and rebar, bundle tags by mark number, submittal or approval references | Paperwork travels with the load and the signed delivery receipt comes back with it, because a missing mill cert stops an inspection as hard as a missing bundle |
| Load sequence | Steel and precast shipped in erection sequence, rebar grouped by placing drawing, deck and board split by area or floor | Loading order is written into the load plan, so first needed is last loaded and the crew is not cutting bands to hunt for mark numbers |
| Weather protection | Gypsum board, insulation, bagged cement and finish lumber cannot get wet, and board that got wet is rejected even after it dries | Enclosed equipment or full tarping specified at quoting, with the tarp type matched to the freight and dunnage that supports the full stack |
| Securement | FMCSA rules: two tiedowns past 5 feet of article length, two plus one more per additional 10 feet or fraction past 10 feet, aggregate working load limit at least half the cargo weight, blocking or chocking on round stock | Coated and galvanized members get web straps, corner protectors and softeners instead of bare chain, and bundles are retensioned early in the run |
| Oversize | Long steel, plank, tees and wide panels pass 8 feet 6 inches wide or run past the deck, and cross each state's threshold for flags, escorts and daylight only travel | Permits, escorts and route planning handled at quoting so permit lead time sits inside the schedule instead of on top of it |
| Axle loading | Rebar, plate, pipe and bagged cement load heavy in a short space, and a tandem is held to 34,000 pounds even when the load is far under 80,000 gross | Weight distribution and axle position are planned off the piece list, and a spread axle or an added axle is assigned rather than forcing a legal gross onto one tandem |
The equipment
The Trailer Is Chosen by the Piece and the Offload, Not by the Weight
One project runs through most of the deck types in the market. Rebar, pipe, lumber, trusses, roofing panels and structural steel ride flatbed, because they come off the side or overhead and nothing about them fits through a rear door. Anything tall enough to break the legal height on a flatbed steps down to a step deck, and plate girders, deep tees and heavy installed equipment go lower still on RGN or lowboy. Gypsum board, insulation, finish lumber and packaged goods run dry van, where weather is not a variable and a site with a forklift can unload without stripping tarps. A short heavy drop that will not fill a deck goes partial truckload rather than paying for air. Small deliveries to a site with no offload equipment at all take final mile with a liftgate. And when a piece is long enough, wide enough or tall enough to need permits, flags and escorts, it is oversized freight and it gets planned as oversized freight from the quote, not renamed at dispatch.
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Every carrier is vetted for operating authority and insurance, and we check the certificate before every dispatch, not once a year. USDOT 3411782 · MC 1100274