So you’re driving down the road and you see a truck with a small house on the trailer drive past you. What you might not realize is that before that house even made it onto the back of the trailer, a huge amount of planning had to go into exactly how the driver was going to get it from point A to point B.

Unlike standard sized loads, oversized freight can be, and often is, dimensionally larger and more awkward than what you’d usually find on the back of a truck. Because of that, before the engine can even be fired up on the truck, not only do escort vehicles have to be planned for (the little sedans and coupes with the lights on them and the signs saying “wide load” that move ahead of and behind the truck), but the route itself must be taken into account.

Planning the route has little to do with planning for traffic and more to do with planning to get the shipment to the final location in one piece. A small house on the back of a truck will be far more difficult to fit underneath an overpass than a standard trailer. Because of that, a plan that will avoid low overpasses, foliage, and even power lines must be planned when dealing with oversized freight.