Ever heard that charity begins at home? As a construction contractor, one of your most important responsibilities is to ensure that all work equipment is handled and moved in a safe manner. Tracked excavators are heavy machinery commonly used by construction contractors to dig foundations for new buildings. But, unlike their wheeled counterparts, tracked excavators cannot be transported under normal road conditions; therefore, a lot of work has to go into ensuring that these heavy construction machines are delivered where they are needed safely.
If you have just purchased a fleet of tracked excavators for your construction business, you need to be aware of how you can transport them to various construction sites without compromising on the safety of your workers and the general public.
Follow these tips to ensure safe transportation of your tracked excavators:
Prior to transport
Tracked excavators come in different shapes, sizes and weights. Before any of your tracked excavators can be transported, they will have to be appropriately loaded and tied down onto the hauling vehicle. But first things first, you will need to know the total weight of the machine and its attachments so that you can choose a hauling vehicle of correct weight capacity. You can achieve this by summing up the weight of an excavator machine with that of its attachments as indicated on their respective owner's manuals.
When you are ready to drive an excavator onto the deck of the transporting vehicle, make sure you use a loading ramp of adequate capacity. Once the load is properly positioned behind the deck of the hauling vehicle, use strong-enough chains and come-alongs to tightly tie it down onto the anchor points. If your load exceeds the width limits set for heavy machine transportation, make sure you flag it to increase visibility.
During transport
Even though it may not be mandatory, it is important to provide escort vehicle service for drivers transporting your tracked excavator machines. Drivers of escort vehicles will warn those carrying your priced assets of anything up ahead that can hinder safe passage. They also caution the general public and other road users of possible dangers due to the truckload.
For long trips, instruct your drivers to make periodic stopovers so that they can check if their loads are still well-secured since it is not unusual for chains and come-alongs to become loose during the trip.
As is the case with other heavy construction machines, transporting tracked excavators is not an easy job. But by following the above-discussed tips, you stand a better chance of doing the job a lot more safely. You might also want to consider hiring an industrial transport service to make the job even easier and safer.
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