Oversize.io web based platform permits project cargoes

Axle spacing, weight distribution, and frost laws are some of the permit, regulations and routing options that shippers, truckers and brokers confront in moving oversize and overweight (OS/OW) cargoes. The labyrinth of details from counties, cities, states and federal governments is a formidable task that some truckers try to avoid which can be costly in penalties, dangerous to the traveling public and exact wear and tear on road and bridge infrastructures. These problems perplexed Drew Jahnke, founder and director of sales of the web-based platform, Oversize.io, based in Kansas.

“This company was created out of the pain I was experiencing as a dispatcher and broker in the open deck/heavy haul industry. I spent 6 years between being a dispatcher [working with trucks to book loads] and as a broker [working with shippers to move their freight on trucks]. My largest frustration with working in the oversize/heavy haul industry was the time it took to do proper due diligence, build quotes, and mostly navigate all the rules, regulations and pricing for each state,” he told the American Journal of Transportation in a recent interview.

Director Jahnke estimates that the addressable market is 25,000 OS/OW permits per day in the United States which includes full lane loads of 150,000 pounds, 14-16 feet wide or 15 feet tall cargoes of bulldozers, cranes, boomers, last mile trucks for wind farms and large construction and oil equipment moving across states. These non-divisible loads are breakbulk requiring permits that can be very expensive depending on the state. Each state has a manual for OS/OW permits that are like tax rules and regulations with loopholes. “There are so many variables. So, the Oversize.io platform navigates and calculates all these variables,” he said.

Digitizing the Problem

For example, Oklahoma has a flat rate per weight for no matter how many miles and for 150,000 pounds a rate of $780 for a 30-mile route. Louisiana has a per ton per mile $30,000 permit to go across the state for half a million-pound cranes. A 100,000-pound weight load can include the truck weight of which 80,000 is legal and 20,000 pounds is extra weight with fees of $300 to $500 to a few thousand dollars. Over 150,000 pounds in certain states can require 3^rd party engineering reviews that can cost thousands of dollars per state. Engineering reviews analyze bridges to not cause damages. Essentially, trucks are paying to damage the roads and some states can reject it so would need to reroute to other states.

Civilian escorts for 1000 miles run can cost $1500 to $2000 and police escorts can cost three to four times that amount which all differ by states. “There are so many variables,” admonished Jahnke. So, the Oversize.io platform navigates all these variables by carriers putting in their data and the system calculates if they can do the transport through all the states.

Some of the Oversize.io clients include large and small freight forwarders involving Komatsu shipments, Berard mega transport experts in Louisiana and DSV as well as the top 20 of 25 brokerages. Importers and exporters for project cargoes involving China fabrications for factories and European heavy machinery as well as oil and gas projects through Houston port make use of the platform. The platform Oversize.io gives users confidence in the bureaucracy that can be opaque to a freight forwarder not knowing the United States market. “The platform gives real prices on permits to clarify. Drivers, shippers and brokers all get the same information from the platform. We are not a dog in the fight to make money,” he said. The dog in the fight is illustrated by oil companies willing to pay to move equipment to their North Dakota oil fields, and counties will charge for permits amounting to $10,000 for a 250-mile route. Drivers will be assessed a penalty of $25,000 without a permit based on frost laws. There are also 150,000-pound super heavy load per ton, per mile charges.