Oversized shipments: how to move a plant from Germany to the US
Organizing and handling the transport of oversized shipments requires precise pre-planning. Each shipment has individual features which need to be taken into account. In preparation for the transport, central questions include how to move shipments to or from a port: by truck or by barge? Which transport route is feasible?
“For successfully realizing a break bulk out-of-gauge transport, a solid transport concept is the key”, says Jürgen Wittmann, Office Manager at Karl Gross in Regensburg, Southern Germany. He and his team regularly plan and carry out intercontinental transport solutions for oversized and overweight cargo which originates in Southern Germany.
Among their customers is a manufacturer of brewery plants. And they ordered us to organize and handle the transportation of several out-of-gauge brewery plant pieces from their manufacturing site in Southern Germany, to the US. “We realized a transport solution, supervised all way down the transport chain”, says Jürgen Wittmann.
The shipment was supervised by us, all way down the transport chain.
A short sketch of the shipment
The shipment consisted of 15 out-of-gauge colli, weighing 75 tons. The heaviest colli weighed around 20 tons and measured 7.3 meters in diameter and 4.5 meters in height. All of the parts were trucked from the manufacturing site to a close by inland port. From here, they were shipped via barges to Belgium. There, all the pieces were rolled on board and stowed in a Ro/Ro vessel.
On carriage ran in convoys
On carriage was handled via trucking and the route was about 270 km long. The freight was split up into three convoys. The road transport had required special preparation and planning. “For this type of freight, you have to obtain special licenses and permission in advance”, says Jürgen Wittmann. The giants’ on carriage took two nights per partial shipment.
