Machinery, components, resins and fabricated metal. How the crate and the skid decide the equipment, why plant receiving is stricter than a DC, and the point at which a machine move stops being truckload and becomes a permit job.
Manufacturing and industrial covers everything from a pallet of fasteners to a 40,000-pound press. What ties it together is that the item is usually engineered rather than packaged — it has lift points, a centre of gravity, a crate or a skid built for it, and a receiving plant with its own rules about how it may arrive. The freight decision follows the physical object, not the commodity code.
Two questions settle most industrial postings. First, how does it come off the truck: forklift from the side, overhead crane, driven off a ramp, or a rigging crew. Second, does it fit inside legal dimensions once it is sitting on the deck. Get those two right and the rest is ordinary truckload. Get them wrong and you have a truck at a plant gate with a machine nobody can lift.
These profiles need different equipment, different paperwork and different rate expectations. Treating them as one category is the most common reason this freight sits on a board.
| Profile | What it is | Usual equipment |
|---|---|---|
| Production components | Fabricated parts, castings, stampings, sub-assemblies moving between plants on a schedule. Often JIT, where the window matters more than the rate. | Dry van |
| Machinery & capital equipment | Presses, CNC machines, packaging lines, compressors, generators. Crated or skidded, frequently over standard height once on a deck. | Step deck / Flatbed |
| Structural & fabricated metal | Weldments, frames, tanks, ductwork, structural assemblies. Length and awkward geometry rather than weight decide the trailer. | Flatbed / Step deck |
| Plastics & resins | Bagged, boxed and gaylord-packaged resin and compounds. Dense, palletised, and usually weight-limited well before the trailer is full. | Dry van |
| Electrical & controls | Switchgear, transformers, control panels, cable reels. Damage-sensitive, often tall, and frequently a Conestoga candidate. | Conestoga / Dry van |
| MRO & spares | Maintenance parts and spares, usually small but time-critical when a line is down. | Hotshot / Dry van |
| Plant shuttle & trailer pools | Repetitive short moves between plants, warehouses and rail ramps on preloaded trailers. | Power only |
Components, resins, packaged parts and anything that fits through the doors and can be blocked and braced inside. Dense resin and metal parts weigh out around 44,000–45,000 lb long before the trailer is full, so weight is the number that matters on the posting. Inside the van, dunnage, airbags and load bars are what stop an engineered part becoming a damage claim.
Current national benchmarks, and what carriers, brokers and shippers each pay: dry van freight rates →The default for crated machinery. The lower deck — roughly 38–42 inches against a flatbed's 60 — buys back about 20 inches of legal cargo height, which is frequently the difference between a normal load and a permit load. Step decks usually carry ramps, so wheeled and tracked equipment drives on and off.
Current national benchmarks, and what carriers, brokers and shippers each pay: step deck freight rates →Structural steel, tanks, weldments and anything loaded by overhead crane or from the side. Roughly 48,000 lb of legal payload, but the practical limit on industrial freight is height: about 8 ft 6 in of cargo before you are into permits.
Current national benchmarks, and what carriers, brokers and shippers each pay: flatbed freight rates →A rolling tarp on a flatbed or step-deck frame. Its place in industrial freight is machined, painted, coated and electrical equipment — anything a tarp would scuff and anything that must not be rained on while a crew figures out the rigging. Costs more per mile, removes an hour of tarping at each end and most of the abrasion risk.
Current national benchmarks, and what carriers, brokers and shippers each pay: conestoga freight rates →Plant shuttles, rail-ramp drays and repetitive inter-facility moves on preloaded trailers. It takes the truck out of the loading queue, which at a plant running shift changes is worth more than the rate difference.
Current national benchmarks, and what carriers, brokers and shippers each pay: power only freight rates →Rates on this freight follow the equipment, not the industry — a pallet of canned goods and a pallet of hardware price the same in the same van. See all market rates per mile or the weekly market reports.
Almost every industrial freight failure traces back to one of these being assumed rather than stated. None of them are the carrier's to guess.
| Dimensions as it sits on the deck | Not the machine's dimensions — the crated or skidded footprint, and the height once it is on a deck. Height plus deck height is what decides flatbed, step deck or permit. |
| Actual weight, and where it sits | Total weight and how it is distributed. A concentrated load can be legal in gross weight and illegal on an axle, and where the crate sits on the deck is a shipper decision as much as a driver one. |
| Lift points and centre of gravity | Marked lift and fork points, and the centre of gravity if it is not obvious. An unmarked machine gets lifted where it looks strongest, which is how frames get bent. |
| Crate or skid construction | Whether the item is crated, skidded, shrink-wrapped or bare, and whether the skid is rated to be forked from all four sides. A skid that can only be lifted one way must be labelled that way. |
| Loading method at each end | Forklift with a stated capacity, overhead crane, gantry, ramp, or a rigging crew. Name the equipment and the capacity, at both origin and destination. |
| Tarp or enclosure requirement | Whether the item must be covered, and whether tarping is acceptable or a Conestoga is required because of the surface finish. |
| Securement notes for the item | Any tie-down points, no-strap zones, or the fact that it falls under a commodity-specific rule — heavy equipment is covered separately under 49 CFR 393.130. |
| Permit status if over-dimension | If it is over width, height or length: whether permits are in hand, who pulls them, and whether escorts are required. See oversize load rates. |
Capacity on this freight is close to constant through the year. Demand is not, and that gap is what moves the rate.
| Period | What happens |
|---|---|
| Jan–Feb | Quiet. Industrial output is steady but open-deck capacity is abundant because construction is not competing for it, which makes this the cheapest window of the year to move machinery that is not urgent. |
| Mar–May | Capital projects restart with the construction season and open-deck capacity tightens noticeably from March onwards. |
| Jun–Aug | Peak competition for flatbed and step deck. It is also the classic plant-shutdown window — many facilities take maintenance downtime in July, which is precisely when equipment installs and machine moves get scheduled. |
| Sep–Nov | Steady and busy, with a push to complete capital installs and commissioning before year end. Open-deck capacity begins easing late in the period. |
| Dec | Falls off with the holiday shutdowns. Plants close, receiving stops, and a machine that arrives on the 23rd sits in a yard until January. |
| The gate is a process, not a door | Security check-in, safety orientation, PPE requirements and escorted movement on site are normal at industrial facilities. It takes time and it is not detention — but it should be expected in the schedule. |
| Shift changes stop receiving | Many plants will not unload during a shift change or during the last part of a shift. A truck arriving at the wrong hour waits for reasons no dock schedule shows. |
| The forklift capacity is the real constraint | A plant with a 5,000 lb forklift cannot unload an 8,000 lb crate no matter how many it has. Confirm the capacity, not just that a forklift exists. |
| Rigging is a separate booking | For a machine that needs a crane or a rigging crew, that crew is booked to a time. A late truck misses a crane window that may not repeat for days — which is why this freight is scheduled, not spot-booked, whenever possible. |
| JIT windows are line-stoppage windows | On production freight the cost of being late is measured in idle line time, not in freight dollars. Say on the posting when a load is line-critical — it changes how a carrier plans it. |
| No overnight parking on site | Most plants will not let a truck sit on site overnight, so an early arrival becomes a layover somewhere else. See the layover policy and the detention pay policy. |
Every one of these is an accessorial with a written LoadBoot standard, agreed before the truck moves rather than argued about after: detention, layover, TONU, lumper fees, driver assist and FCFS versus appointment.
Cargo securement, 49 CFR 393.100–393.136. The general rules apply to everything on an open deck: aggregate working load limit of at least half the cargo weight, and immobilisation against movement in every direction. Machinery and heavy equipment have their own section — 393.130 for heavy vehicles, equipment and machinery — which is why calling the item what it is on the posting changes how it must legally be tied down.
Size and weight, and where the permit line sits. 80,000 lb gross on the Interstate system, 34,000 lb on a tandem axle, generally 8 ft 6 in wide, and a state-set height limit that is commonly 13 ft 6 in in the East and 14 ft across much of the West. Crated machinery lands near that height constantly, which is the whole reason step decks exist in this vertical.
Oversize and superload permits. Issued per state and per route, with curfews, daylight-only restrictions, escort or pilot-car requirements and holiday blackouts. Lead times range from same-day to several days, and a genuine superload can require an engineering review. This is schedule work, not rate work — start it early.
Hazardous materials. Some industrial freight — certain resins, coatings, solvents, batteries, compressed gases — is regulated hazmat, which requires proper classification, packaging, marking, placarding, shipping papers and a carrier with the right endorsement. If there is any chance your material is regulated, establish its classification before posting it, not at the dock.
This is general operating information, not legal advice. Regulations are amended and state rules vary — confirm current requirements for your commodity and route before relying on them.
Rate is rarely why this freight sits. It sits because a carrier cannot tell from the posting whether the load is legal on his trailer, how long he will wait, or what he gets paid if it goes wrong. Six things fix most of that.
| Crated dimensions and weight | Length, width, height as crated, plus weight. State the height explicitly — it is what decides flatbed versus step deck versus permit. |
| Lift points, fork points, centre of gravity | Marked or described. This is the information that prevents damage, and only the shipper has it. |
| Loading and unloading equipment at both ends | Forklift and its capacity, crane, gantry, ramp or rigging crew — named for origin and destination separately. |
| Cover requirement | Open, tarped, or Conestoga because of the finish. Say which and why; tarping is priced labour. |
| Plant access and receiving rules | Gate procedure, safety orientation, PPE, receiving hours and any shift-change blackout. A site contact who answers the phone is worth more than a paragraph. |
| Whether the load is line-critical | If a late delivery stops production, say so. It changes routing, buffer time and whether a carrier will take the load at all. |
Post a manufacturing and industrial load → · Why posting is free for brokers and shippers →
Add the crated height to the deck height and compare it against the state height limit on your route. A flatbed deck sits around 60 inches, so against a common 13 ft 6 in limit you have roughly 8 ft 6 in of legal cargo height. A step deck's main deck sits about 38–42 inches, giving you roughly 10 feet. Crated industrial machinery lands between those two constantly, which is why the height on the posting matters more than the weight.
Dimensions as crated, total weight, lift and fork points, centre of gravity if it is not central, whether the skid can be forked from all four sides, and any no-strap or no-chain zones on the item. None of that is guessable from the outside of a crate, and all of it changes how the load is handled and secured.
When it exceeds legal dimensions and needs permits, escorts and a routed survey, or when it needs a rigging crew and a crane rather than a forklift. At that point the truck is one line item in a project with a schedule of its own. The transition is gradual and it is worth identifying early — permit lead times are the part that surprises people. See oversize load rates.
Because a plant is a controlled site. Gate security, a safety briefing, PPE, escorted movement, and receiving that stops for shift changes are all normal. Add the fact that the unloading equipment may be shared with production, and a straightforward delivery can occupy several hours without anyone doing anything wrong. Build it into the free time rather than discovering it as detention.
It may be. Certain resins and compounds, coatings and solvents, lithium batteries and compressed gases fall under the hazardous materials regulations, which govern classification, packaging, marking, placarding, shipping papers and who may haul them. This is a determination to make from the safety data sheet before the load is posted — not something to resolve while a driver waits at the dock.
It follows the equipment. Van-legal components price as dry van; crated machinery prices as flatbed or step deck, with a premium for tarping, Conestoga or over-dimension work. Current national benchmarks are on the step deck, flatbed and dry van rate pages.
Posting is free for brokers and shippers — no subscription and no per-post fee. Every carrier who can accept your load has had authority, insurance and safety checked first, every load carries live GPS, and the accessorial terms above are written down before the truck moves.