Heavy Haul — Qeep Logistics freight service
Permit desk · oversize, overweight & escorts

Heavy Haul Trucking.
Permitted, escorted, legal in every province.

Oversize and overweight freight that still moves on a trailer — step deck, double drop, RGN and multi-axle — with the permits, pilot cars and route survey handled before the truck rolls.

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2.6 m before a permit
Legal width
3–15 business days
Permit lead time
Step deck to 9-axle
Equipment
All provinces + 48 states
Coverage
Overview

Past 2.6 metres, the trailer is the easy part.

Standard legal width across Canada is 2.6 m, with height at 4.15 m and a typical highway combination at 23 m — the numbers come from the interprovincial Memorandum of Understanding every province builds its rules on. Cross any one of them and the move stops being a trucking problem and becomes a permitting one. Each province runs its own portal, its own escort thresholds and its own curfews, and they do not agree with each other. Ontario bans oversize movement through the GTA at rush hour and closes summer Sundays from noon; Alberta pulls weight allowances the moment frost probes read 25 cm of thaw; Québec issues seven separate permit classes and sends anything above Class 5 for engineering review. We file the permits, book the pilot cars, and build the route around the restrictions rather than discovering them at a bridge.

Heavy Haul freight in motion — Qeep Logistics

One permit chain, every province and state the load crosses.

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How it works

From quote to POD, step by step.

1

Dimensions and weight, verified

Exact width, height, length and gross weight, plus centre of gravity and lift or tie-down points. Every downstream decision — trailer, permit class, escorts, route — is derived from these five numbers, so we confirm them against a drawing or a scale ticket rather than an estimate.

2

Equipment selected against legal height

Deck height is chosen so cargo height plus deck height stays under the provincial ceiling wherever it can. Dropping from a flatbed to a double drop buys roughly a metre of cargo height and can be the difference between a routine permit and an escorted move.

3

Route survey

Bridge ratings, overhead clearances, turn radii and pinch points along the whole corridor. Utility clearances are checked where height demands it. The survey is what turns a permit application into an approvable one.

4

Permits filed, escorts booked

Single-trip or annual permits with the issuing authority in every province and state the load crosses, and pilot cars booked against that province's own thresholds. Single-trip permits in Ontario need a minimum of three business days; annual and enhanced annual permits run 10 to 15.

5

Move day, inside the curfews

Departure timed around rush-hour bans, weekend and holiday restrictions and daylight-only rules. Pilot cars run the specified distance ahead and behind, and the driver carries the permit, the approved route and the escort plan.

Equipment & specifications

Pick the right trailer for the job.

Equipment

Flatbed

Deck about 1.5 m. Carries cargo up to roughly 2.6 m tall inside the 4.15 m legal ceiling. Fastest to load and secure; no well, no ramps.

Equipment

Step deck (drop deck)

Upper deck about 1.07–1.14 m. Buys roughly 3.05 m of legal cargo height. The usual answer for construction and agricultural equipment that is tall but not extreme.

Equipment

Double drop

Well floor about 0.46–0.61 m. Carries roughly 3.5–3.65 m of cargo height legally. Used when the load is tall enough that a step deck would need an overheight permit.

Equipment

RGN / lowboy

Removable gooseneck detaches so the trailer becomes a ramp. Well floor about 0.46–0.61 m. For heavy, tall, driveable machines — excavators, dozers, graders.

Equipment

Multi-axle and modular

Extra axle lines spread gross weight so each axle group stays inside its legal allowance. Chosen for weight, not height.

Pricing

What drives the rate?

Transparent inputs, not mystery margins. Here’s exactly what goes into a heavy haul quote.

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Permit class and count
One permit per jurisdiction crossed. Single-trip permits are cheapest per move but must be filed each time; annual permits amortise across repeat lanes. Superload permits carry the highest fee and the longest review.
Escort requirement
The single largest swing. Ontario adds one private escort from 4 m wide and a certified superload escort at 5 m; BC can require three pilot cars on two-lane highways at 5 m. Each vehicle is a day rate plus mileage.
Curfews and daylight rules
Rush-hour bans, summer Sunday closures and daylight-only restrictions stretch transit. A move that would run in a day legally takes three, and the tractor is paid for all three.
Spring thaw
Reduced load periods cut allowable weight on affected roads and can invalidate an annual overweight permit outright. Moves that straddle the thaw window are re-routed, re-engineered onto more axles, or waited out.
Route difficulty
A survey that finds a low bridge or a tight interchange adds detour kilometres. Where no legal route exists at the load's dimensions, the piece is split or the move escalates to engineered project cargo.
Equipment class
Step deck to double drop to RGN to multi-axle is an ascending cost ladder. Choosing the lowest deck that keeps the load legal is usually cheaper than permitting a taller load on a simpler trailer.
Compare

Heavy haul or project logistics?

FactorHeavy haulProject logistics
Typical gross weightAbove legal, under about 120,000 kgAbove 120,000 kg, into the hundreds of tonnes
What moves itStep deck, double drop, RGN, multi-axleHydraulic modular trailers, SPMTs, heavy-lift vessels
ApprovalPermit filed against published thresholdsEngineering review, bridge analysis, project justification
LiftDrives or rolls on, or a standard craneEngineered lift plan, sometimes purpose-built rigging
Lead timeDaysWeeks to months
ShapeOversize but still trailer-borneOut-of-gauge, breakbulk, cannot be containerised
Industries we serve with this

Verticals where heavy haul is the right call.

Construction & Building Materials
Industry desk →
Industrial & Energy
Industry desk →
Oil, Gas & Renewable Energy
Industry desk →
Agriculture & Grain
Industry desk →
Government & Defense
Industry desk →
Frequently asked

Heavy Haul questions, answered.

When does a load legally become oversize in Canada?
Standard legal limits under the interprovincial Memorandum of Understanding are 2.6 m wide and 4.15 m high, with a typical tractor-semitrailer combination at 23 m. Ontario, Alberta, BC and Québec all publish 2.6 m and 4.15 m as their baseline. Exceed any single dimension and you need an oversize permit from every jurisdiction the load crosses. Weight is separate: 63,500 kg is the standard gross ceiling in Ontario and BC, above which an overweight permit applies.
How do I get an oversize permit in Ontario, and how long does it take?
Ontario permits are issued by the Ministry of Transportation through the PRIO portal. A single-trip permit needs a minimum of three business days and covers up to seven days of travel; annual and enhanced annual permits take 10 to 15 business days. An annual permit covers up to 63,500 kg and 3.85 m wide on multi-lane highways; the enhanced annual goes to 78,000 kg and 32 m long. A single-trip permit can reach 120,000 kg, 5 m wide and 45.75 m long.
At what width do I need a pilot vehicle?
It differs by province, which is why cross-provincial moves get expensive. In Ontario no escort is needed up to 3.99 m wide; one private escort applies from 4 m on multi-lane highways, two on two-lane highways from 4.6 m, and a certified superload escort at 5 m or wider. Alberta requires one pilot vehicle above 3.85 m on two-lane highways and a pilot plus trail vehicle above 4.45 m. British Columbia can require three pilot cars at 5 m on two-lane highways, and two on multi-lane.
What counts as a superload?
Ontario defines it as 120,000 kg or more, 5 m or wider, or 45.75 m or longer — any of which triggers an engineer-reviewed bridge evaluation, and beyond 6 m wide or 120,000 kg also requires project justification documentation. British Columbia uses the term extraordinary load instead, triggered above 64,000 kg on non-approved routes, 85,000 kg outright, 4.4 m wide, 4.88 m high or 40 m long. Québec sends anything past its Class 5 weight limits to Class 6, which requires a ministry engineering assessment.
Can an oversize load travel at night or on weekends?
Usually not, and the restrictions are where schedules break. Ontario bans oversize movement through the GTA between 7:00 and 9:30 inbound and 15:30 and 18:30 outbound, closes summer Sundays from noon to midnight between June and August in the south, and restricts Friday afternoons from 15:00. Québec applies rush-hour curfews around Montréal and Québec City and a general prohibition on Sundays and holidays. Alberta restricts loads over 5.3 m high to daylight only unless the permit says otherwise.
What is the spring thaw restriction and will it affect my move?
Reduced load periods cut allowable axle weights while roadbeds are soft. Ontario runs its Reduced Load Period from March through April in the south and March through May in the north, and an annual or project permit is not valid for overweight movement during that window. Alberta triggers restrictions once frost probes read 25 cm of thaw depth, monitored across roughly 70 stations, with bans typically lifting around mid-June. If your move falls in that window, it is re-routed, re-engineered onto more axle lines, or scheduled around it.
Which trailer do I need?
Work height first, then weight. A flatbed carries roughly 2.6 m of cargo height inside the 4.15 m ceiling; a step deck buys about 3.05 m; a double drop or RGN gets you to roughly 3.5–3.65 m. If the load is driveable, an RGN's detachable gooseneck becomes the ramp and you avoid a crane. Once height is solved, check gross weight against axle-group limits — a single axle is capped near 9,100 kg, a tandem near 17,000 kg and a tridem between 21,000 and 24,000 kg — and add axle lines rather than deck height if the load is heavy rather than tall.
Do you handle permits for cross-border oversize moves?
Yes. A load moving from Ontario into the US needs a permit from every state it crosses as well as the Canadian provinces, filed against each jurisdiction's own thresholds, plus customs clearance on the commercial side. We file the permit chain and align it with the customs entry so the truck is not sitting at the border holding a permit that expires while it waits.
Where you ship from

Rates and transit times change by market.

What a lane costs and how long it takes depends on the terminals, ramps and crossings at each end. Pick your market for the local detail.

All locations
You may also need

One file. Multiple services. Same team.

Flatbed

Open-deck capacity for oversize, machinery, building materials and steel — with permits and escorts.

Project Logistics

Specialized services for heavy-lift, breakbulk and out-of-gauge project cargo — engineered move by move.

Canada-US Cross-Border

Daily north- and southbound cross-border with in-house customs filing and bonded carrier network.

Intermodal

Door-to-door rail-and-truck with cost savings on long-haul lanes and lower carbon per mile.

Customs Brokerage

Customs entries filed by licensed brokers on both sides of the border — CBSA and CBP — with classification, duty and CARM handled for you.

Let’s move it

Have a shipment? Get rates in 10 min.

Tell us the origin, destination and mode. A Qeep specialist replies within 10 minutes with live capacity, lane price, and a transit window you can actually plan around.

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