Can Flatbed Shipping Be Used with New Clients?
In the era of standardization, products are shipped in square packages that can be placed one on top of each other to take advantage of the space inside a trailer truck. This shift has resulted in the reduction of flatbed shipping to the benefit of trailer truck shipping. Does this mean that companies need to adapt their products and follow this trend in order to serve new clients?
Not really.
Like most services, flatbed shipping has its place in the market as long as you understand where it is best used. If you’re reading this article, yours may be a company that handles products that come in unusual sizes or shapes. Some loads just aren’t going to fit inside a conventional semi- trailer. Changing your products to accommodate the limited dimensions of a semi-trailer truck may not be an option. But even if it were, is that going to make your offering better or just one more competitor in a sea of competition? All sellers have to explain the benefits of their products, that the way your products are designed is the best way and why this is true. Fortunately, the flatbed shipping option is great for big, heavy or oversized loads.
On-Time Delivery with Flatbed Shipping
If you are shipping heavy machinery or its parts, focus on the benefits your products offer, their power and their capability. You are the one that can send that crane that can actually lift heavy materials efficiently and with great stability; you are the one that can send the bulldozer that can demolish concrete and rebar structures; you are the one that can send those huge concrete castings for highway or sewage systems. And no matter what the size, shape or weight of the solution you offer, you, along with shipping on a flatbed truck, can deliver the goods anywhere and on time.
The reason flatbed trucks are able to provide a unique option for customers and sellers is that their characteristics are simple, but very different from a trailer truck. Unlike a trailer truck, a flatbed truck doesn’t have a roof or even permanent walls. This difference is simple and may even seem to be a disadvantage to some, but if you’ve worked with heavy machinery or construction materials, or hauled logs or other heavy loads, you know how important this difference is.
Loading and shipping heavy machinery and large materials is not a simple task. In most cases, you can’t simply place the truck next to a loading dock and load the cargo. The load has to be driven or towed onto or lifted onto the flatbed and then secured to the deck. This process requires space above and to the sides of the truck, both for ease of loading and unloading and for safety.