Reducing Convoy Width Through Custom Engineering
In oversized transport, reducing transport time and cost often depends on how the cargo is configured, not only on the equipment used to move it.
For a transport from Bistrița, Romania, to Le Creusot, France, Eastship Projects & Logistics faced a component whose dimensions made the conventional transport configuration inefficient. Measuring 9.00 m in length and 5.22 m in width, with a weight of 11 tonnes, the component would have required significant traffic management measures if transported in its standard position.
To optimise transport time and costs, Eastship developed a non-standard solution: a custom inclined platform designed and built specifically for the operation.
Rethinking the Conventional Configuration
The main constraint was the component's 5.22 m width. In a horizontal position, this would have resulted in a convoy requiring road closures and special traffic arrangements on constrained sections of the route.
At the same time, the available height clearances had to be considered. The solution therefore had to address the overall dimensional envelope of the convoy rather than simply accommodate the cargo's original dimensions.
The answer was to change the position of the cargo itself.
Eastship designed and built an inclined platform that could be mounted on the trailer, allowing the component to be transported at an angle. This changed the dimensional profile of the convoy, reducing its width from 5.22 m to 4.50 m.
A Custom-Built Transport Solution
The platform was not a standard piece of transport equipment. It was designed and built by Eastship specifically for this cargo and this transport operation.
By changing the orientation of the component, the resulting configuration reduced the convoy width sufficiently to avoid the road closures and additional special traffic arrangements that would have been required with the conventional setup.
The solution also took into account the height limitations along the route, allowing the inclined configuration to remain compatible with the available clearances.
Bistrița to Le Creusot
The engineered configuration was used for the road transport from Bistrița to Le Creusot, providing a more efficient alternative to the conventional transport setup.
By adapting the transport equipment to the cargo rather than treating the cargo dimensions as fixed, Eastship was able to develop a solution that optimised both transport time and cost while reducing the operational impact on the route.
The project demonstrates how a non-standard transport configuration can provide a practical solution when the dimensions of oversized cargo create constraints that conventional equipment cannot efficiently address.
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