Experience, Communication and the Right Equipment
Experience counts in the heavy haul industry and NessCampbell has it in abundance. For more than 75 years, the company has been meeting the specialized transportation needs of customers across the Pacific Northwest. Today, it serves clients in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and nationwide from eight locations.
The key to NessCampbell’s success handling heavy hauls is the ability to support all phases of a project.
“It comes down to experience, communication and the right equipment,” said Don Schimmel, specialized haul project manager. “It starts with communicating with customers to have the right information from the beginning. That’s what lets us plan moves effectively and safely and provide the right equipment.”
Meeting a Challenge
NessCampbell’s goal is always to exceed customer expectations and that was exactly the case when Shell Refinery recommended the company to DSV Global Transport and Logistics to move four 245-foot long, 600,000-pound reactors 30 miles from the Port of Richmond to a refinery in Martinez, California.
NessCampbell encountered numerous challenges during this project, not the least of which was how to transport the large and heavy reactors across the San Francisco Bay area. For example, the ideal route they planned involved traveling the wrong direction on I-680 for two miles to get to the refinery.
Simultaneously, the timeframe for offloading the four reactors from a ship, transporting them over the road one at a time, and offloading and staging them at the refinery was a tight two and a half weeks.
With their engineering and planning, transportation and hauling, and rigging and equipment operation teams in place, NessCampbell worked with people in key positions within the Port of Richmond and state agencies to find viable solutions.
Helped by an early arrival of the ship, route approval, police escorts, utility crews to move obstacles and a range of specialized transport equipment, all four reactors were on site and on the ground two weeks before the specified drop-dead date.
An Expansive Fleet
The NessCampbell fleet includes more than 90 trucks and tractors consisting of heavy haul power units and Oshkosh prime movers in 50-, 150- and 250-ton capacities.
A wide range of types and sizes of trailers are used in NessCampbell heavy haul operations. In the fleet are standard flatbed trailers capable of carrying up to 35 tons in 38- to 53-foot lengths.
Step deck (or single drop) trailers with two to four axles in 40- to 53-foot lengths are equipped with top and bottom decks for handling certain types of cargo that wouldn’t meet highway height restrictions on a flatbed.
The highest capacity trailers in the NessCampbell fleet, ideal for heavy-cargo transportation and specialized hauling projects, low bed trailers in 40- to 48-foot lengths with two to four axles can handle up to 75 tons of capacity with steerable and removable gooseneck (RGN) features.
For oversized shipments, double drop trailers with three decks that use the center wheel-less deck can carry cargo up to 50 tons of capacity that is as much as 10-feet high. The company fields two- and three-axle double drops in 40- to 53-foot lengths in standard, steerable and RGN versions.
With versatile load angles and increased stability from wider track axles, NessCampbell 40- to 53-foot equipment trailers have two or three axles to haul up to 40 tons. The company also fields multi-axle combination trailers, including 80-ton capacity Cozad models.
In the fleet as well are hydraulic platform trailers such as the Goldhofer THP/SL2 that can access public roads with leveling capability and PST self-propelled units for on-site and short distance transport of specialized loads. Recently, NessCampbell purchased a new Goldhofer STZ-P9 trailer as an addition to its fleet.
The Importance of Relationships
“Our range of equipment requires close working relationships with equipment suppliers,” Schimmel said. “They continually offer new and improved equipment, which helps us be more efficient with each project.”
As a provider of heavy haul services in today’s market, NessCampbell also works to meet the unique challenges it faces with every load.
“A lack of harmonization between travel regulations in different states means we have to engineer loads differently all the time,” Schimmel related. “We continually work directly with states to make sure we have the correct equipment that will be used in each jurisdiction.”
Other challenges that NessCampbell is addressing, according to Schimmel, include meeting its labor needs and keeping up with the cost of purchasing and maintaining equipment.
Since 1947, Ness Campbell has been meeting all kinds of obstacles, in its operation and on the road. “Our success,” Schimmel said, “comes from having the right equipment, the right expertise, and by working with suppliers and customers to get every job done cost effectively, efficiently, productively and safely.”
