Heavy Haul, Permit and Drayage Guides
Trailers, permits, truck routes and port moves, with sources on every page
13 guides and tools. Each one is built from official or primary sources (state permit offices, FHWA, NYC DOT, the U.S. Census Bureau, equipment and trailer makers) and dated, and the two tools apply the same rules to your own numbers.
Permits and legal limits
- Legal load limits How far a load can go on width, height, length and weight before it needs a permit, starting from the federal 8 ft 6 in and 80,000 lb, and the travel-time rules that come with oversize.
- How oversize permits work What an application asks for, single-trip versus blanket permits, how long each stays valid (5 permissible hauling days in New York, 10 days in Florida), and how a multi-state route is permitted.
- New York oversize permits Which agency's rules apply where in New York: NYSDOT highways, the Thruway, NYC DOT streets, MTA bridges and tunnels, and Port Authority crossings.
Tools
- Oversize load checker Flags the permit, escort and travel rules a load triggers in each of 48 states, from Maine to California, using each state's own limits.
- Bridge Formula calculator Put in the axle count and the distance between the outer axles and get the federal limit for that group: W = 500(LN/(N-1) + 12N + 36).
Long Island and New York City routes
- Long Island truck routes The roads trucks may use in Nassau and Suffolk, the parkway ban, and the lowest underpasses by name, from FHWA bridge records.
- NYC truck routes Through and local truck routes in the five boroughs, the crossings with height or width limits, and where trucks hit low bridges: 943 strikes in NYC DOT's records, 2013 to 2025.
Port of New York and New Jersey drayage
- What is drayage? What a dray is, who books it, and an import container's trip from a Port Newark or Elizabeth terminal to your dock, with the charges it can pick up on the way.
- Demurrage vs detention Demurrage runs while a container sits at the terminal past its free time; detention, or per diem, runs while it is out past free time. Who bills each, and when the last free day ends.
- Container chassis guide Chassis sizes and tri-axles for heavy boxes, how chassis pools work, and what a chassis split adds when the chassis and the container are in different places.
- Ro-Ro and breakbulk machinery Why Baltimore, Brunswick and Galveston take most imported machines outside containers (Census port figures for 2025), and what a Ro-Ro pickup at the terminal involves.
Planning a move these guides cover? Send the details through our contact page or call (631) 683-8275.
Keep reading
- About HTS LogisticsFMCSA-licensed property broker on Long Island since 2021; the team has worked in heavy haul since 2011.
- FAQHow quotes, bookings, documents and damage claims work with HTS, and how carriers set up.
- ContactCall, email or request a quote.
- Heavy Haul TruckingOversize and overweight loads on RGN, lowboy, step deck and flatbed trailers across the 48 states.
- Heavy Equipment TransportTrailer choice, width-by-width permit and escort triggers and shipping ranges for 47 machines, plus six checks before you book a hauler.
- Heavy Haul TrailersSix trailer types from 83 manufacturer models: loaded deck heights, deck lengths, ratings and which machines each keeps under 13 ft 6 in.