Cargo that won't fit in a box, moved without surprises
Flat racks, open tops, heavy-lift parcels and RORO space from Shenzhen, Ningbo and Shanghai to Santos, Itajaí, Veracruz, Callao and San Antonio. Over-width, over-height and lashing charges sit on the quote — before you book, not at the counter.
Connecting the world, delivering with care!
Four photos of the piece answer more than a page of text — the base and the lifting points included. Rather fill a form? Send dimensions →
From six Chinese ports to three Latin coasts — in 42 seconds
Flat rack, open top, breakbulk and RORO all travel the same water. This is the lane we run every week, and the cargo that moves on it.
- OOG — flat rack & open top
- BBK — heavy-lift breakbulk
- RORO — roll-on / roll-off
- The lane — Asia → Latin America
Three ways to move cargo that doesn't fit
The cheapest answer is almost never the one you asked for. We test the piece against all three before quoting, and tell you which one we would book with our own money.
It ships, it just doesn't fit the steel box
Too wide, too tall, too long, or heavier than the container payload. The box keeps its place in the vessel but the walls, roof or both come off.
- Typical
- CNC and injection machines, transformers, excavators, buses, steel structures, oversize moulds
- Equipment
- 20FR / 40FR / 20OT / 40OT / 40' platform
- Envelope
- single 40FR: ~3.1 m wide, 3.6 m high, 38 t
- Beyond it
- two flat racks or a platform bed — still a weekly container sailing, not a charter
When the lift is beyond any container
Pieces lifted by crane into the hold or onto the hatch of a multipurpose vessel — 40 tonnes and up, 16 metres and longer, or simply too awkward to cradle on a flat rack.
- Typical
- Generators, turbines, plant modules, rails, coated pipe, wind components, presses
- Equipment
- Scheduled MPP tonnage, ship's gear 80–250 t, cribbing and seafastening
- Envelope
- no fixed limit — the ship, the hatch and the crane decide
- Our limit
- liner MPP to about 120 t a lift. Past that we hand you to a charter partner rather than pretend
Anything that rolls, rolls on — if the ship will take it
Vehicles and wheeled or tracked equipment drive or are towed aboard over a stern ramp. No dismantling, no crane at either end — but tracked units need dunnage under the tracks, and some carriers refuse them outright because tracks chew the ramp.
- Typical
- Buses, trucks, tractors, excavators, dozers, forklifts, trailers, new vehicles
- Priced
- per unit or per running metre — never per CBM, which is why RORO and flat rack quotes never line up
- Declare
- fuel level, battery state, keys, loose tools, cleanliness — one missing item keeps it on the quay
- Used units
- Brazil does not admit used vehicles in practice — clear the destination rule before you sell one
Half the cargo quoted as "breakbulk" fits on two flat racks for a third of the price. Before a customer charters tonnage, we test the piece against 2 × 40FR, a platform bed, an open top and a deck stow. If breakbulk is genuinely the only answer, we will say so — and show you the numbers that got us there.
The other half is the reverse: a 12-tonne piece that everyone books on a flat rack and that a 40' open top would have carried for less, because nobody checked the height against the door.
And before either number matters we ask the question that saves the most money: can it be dismantled or split? A removable hood, counterweight or boom often turns a 3.4 m machine into a 2.6 m one that ships in an open top — roughly half of a flat rack plus crane work.
Will it fit? Get an indicative answer in ten seconds
Enter the largest single piece. You get the equipment it needs and the surcharges that will follow — enough to sanity-check a quote before you spend a day collecting them.
The largest single piece is what matters, not the total shipment.
The numbers that decide whether you need special equipment
Indicative working envelopes for the equipment we book most often to Latin America. Every one of them is subject to carrier approval and vessel stow — which is why we confirm in writing before the booking is placed.
2.35 m wide · 2.39 m high · 5.90 / 12.03 m long
Inside dimensions of a standard container. Past this line the cargo cannot travel as a normal box booking — it needs a flat rack, an open top or a platform.
2.438 m wide · 2.591 m high · 12.19 m long
Outside dimensions of the box — the slot it occupies on the vessel. Past this line the carrier charges OWS, OHS or OOL, at whatever tier its tariff uses.
The gap between the two lines is where money is won and lost. A piece 2.40 m wide does not fit in a box, but sits inside the slot width — so it travels on a flat rack without an over-width surcharge. A 2.70 m piece pays OWS on top of the flat rack itself.
| Equipment | Floor / internal size (L × W × H) | Practical cargo envelope | Where it bites |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20' Open Top | 5.90 × 2.35 × 2.35 m | up to 2.68 m high, 26 t | Loaded from above, closed with a tarp — weaker against rain than a closed box. Over-height always needs carrier approval. |
| 40' Open Top | 12.03 × 2.35 × 2.35 m | up to 2.68 m high, 26 t | The cheapest answer for "too tall but not too wide". Cannot be stacked, so it is often first to be rolled. |
| 20' Flat Rack | 5.95 × 2.35 m floor | 2.90 m wide, 2.60 m high, 28 t | Booked at 40-foot rates by most carriers — check the tariff before assuming it is the cheap option. |
| 40' Flat Rack | 12.00 × 2.35 m floor | 3.10 m wide, 3.60 m high, 38 t | Above 2.44 m wide it is OOG and stows on deck only. Deck slots are the scarce resource in peak season: a carrier with no deck position simply refuses the booking. |
| 40' Platform | 12.00 × 3.00 m | 3.60 m wide, 4.20 m high, 45 t | No end walls and no lashing rings where you expect them — securing is designed per piece. |
| MPP breakbulk | hold / hatch 12–20 m | single lifts to ~120 t | Monthly sailings, not weekly, and the ship's crane — not the container yard — sets the limit. |
| PCC / PCTC (RORO) | deck height 4.5–6.5 m | per unit, typically ≤ 60 t | Ramp angle and deck height rule out tall units; fuel level and battery state must be declared. |
Indicative working figures, not carrier tariffs. Actual limits depend on vessel stow, stack weight, port crane capacity and road permits — and on whether a deck slot exists on the sailing you want.
Six line items turn a flat rack rate into a real number
The ocean freight is the part everybody compares. It is rarely the part that moves the total by 30%.
Freight basis
Per flat rack unit, per freight tonne (W/M) on breakbulk, or per running metre on RORO. Not per CBM — a 3 CBM piece can book as a full 40-foot flat rack.
OOG surcharges
OWS above 2.44 m width, OHS above 2.59 m height, OOL beyond 5.90 / 12.19 m length. Tiers differ by carrier, and that is where quotes drift apart.
Lashing & securing
Materials, a surveyor and a plan that survives the voyage. On a flat rack this is a real cost, not a rounding error — and it is the first thing stripped to look cheap.
Crane & port handling
Heavy lift at origin, at destination, or both. The lift can cost more than the ocean leg when the piece needs a mobile crane and a night permit.
Pre-carriage & permits
Low-bed trailer, escort and road permit once the piece passes 2.55 m wide or 4.0 m high. Cross-province over-limit permits take 15–20 working days — this, not the vessel, is what misses sailings.
Insurance
Priced per shipment, and OOG is rated above general cargo. Read the lashing-failure exclusion before you assume "all risk" covers a shifted machine.
Same 40' flat rack, same sailing, quotes USD 800 apart. One included the over-width tier and the lashing survey; the other discovered both after the cargo was on the quay. A special-cargo quote is only comparable line by line — so that is how we send it.
The line nobody asks about is free time. Ten days of terminal storage for a 30-tonne machine at Santos can cost more than the ocean freight on a 20-foot box, and OOG storage is charged by the day. Our quotes show free time and storage days next to the rate, so the number you compare is the number you pay.
Every quote carries 14 days' validity. OWS tiers and flat-rack releases move weekly. A number three weeks old is a number we cannot honour, and we would rather say so before you plan around it.
Four terms that make two quotes incomparable
Same cargo, same vessel, same sailing. One quote is FIO and the other is FLT — that difference alone is 20 to 30%, and it is invisible unless you know to look.
The line loads at origin and discharges at destination. What container freight normally includes — and the term to insist on when you compare a breakbulk rate against an FCL rate.
You pay the crane at both ends. Correct for project cargo where the shipper brings its own gear — and the reason a "cheap" breakbulk rate sometimes turns out not to be cheap.
You also pay for stowage, lashing and dunnage on board. On heavy parcels this is the largest line after the freight itself, and the one most often left off the comparison.
The carrier's responsibility starts and ends at the ship's hook. Everything on the quay — crane, trailer, permit, storage — sits outside it, on your side of the line.
When you compare, compare the same term. Send us another forwarder's rate and we will tell you which of the four it is — five minutes of work that usually explains the whole gap. If their number wins even on the same basis, we will say that too.
Five steps, one owner, no handoffs at the crane
Dimensions in
L × W × H, weight, centre of gravity, lifting points, photos of the piece and its cradle — and one question first: can it be split?
Fit & concept
Tested against flat rack, open top, platform, breakbulk and RORO. Stowage concept and cost lines in 48 hours; the formal lift plan follows the booking, not the enquiry.
Equipment & space
Flat rack or open top released, MPP tonnage or PCC space booked, deck stow confirmed before cut-off.
Handling on the ground
Crane, lashing materials and a surveyor at origin — the same arranged at destination before the vessel sails. The secured cargo is photographed, and the report reaches you within 24 hours of sailing.
Documents & delivery
House B/L, packing list, insurance certificate, and a destination agent who already knows the cargo is out-of-gauge.
What we need before we can quote
- 1Can it be dismantled or split?Ask before you measure. A removable hood, counterweight or boom often changes the equipment entirely — and halves the cost.
- 2Largest piece: length × width × heightMeasure the skid or cradle, not the machine.
- 3Weight and centre of gravityPer piece if the shipment is split across two units.
- 4Lifting points and photosFour angles, plus the base — this decides sling or spreader.
- 5Pickup address and accessWhether a crane or a low-bed can reach the door, and how much lead time the over-limit permit needs.
- 6HS code, consignee and delivery addressUsed machinery into Brazil needs an import licence before sailing.
Send it the way you already have it
A photo of the packing list and four photos of the piece are enough to start. We will come back with the questions we still need answered, not a form to fill in.
The piece is only half the problem. The port is the other half.
Special cargo fails at destination far more often than at origin — a crane that is booked, a licence that is not, a terminal with nowhere to put a 30-tonne machine while it clears.
Brazil — Santos · Itajaí · Paranaguá · Rio Grande · Suape
Used machinery needs an import licence (LI) filed before the vessel sails, not on arrival — and Siscomex / RADAR set-up decides whether your flat rack waits at the terminal for a fortnight. We start that paperwork at booking. One warning on RORO: Santos calls are built around vehicle imports, so export space for machinery is thin and booked per sailing.
Mexico — Veracruz · Manzanillo · Altamira
Padrón de Importadores is the gate, and some machinery also needs NOM certification. Veracruz handles project cargo well; Manzanillo's storage for out-of-gauge units is tight in peak season, so terminal space gets booked early.
Andes — Callao · Guayaquil · Buenaventura
Callao is the main heavy-lift gateway for Peru and the routing most Andean project cargo uses. Direct calls matter: a transhipment adds a second lift, and a second lift is where a cradle gets damaged.
South cone — San Antonio · Valparaíso · Buenos Aires · Montevideo
San Antonio and Valparaíso both take flat racks; San Antonio carries the stronger RORO call for vehicles and equipment. For Asunción, the river feeder caps both draft and crane capacity — check the piece weight before the routing is fixed.
Special cargo, answered plainly
Six fields. We ask the rest.
You do not need a packing list or a CAD drawing. The largest piece, the weight and two ports are enough for a working number — we come back with the questions that are genuinely missing, not a form to complete.
- Same working day: is it OOG at all, and which mode
- 48 hours: stowage concept and the cost lines
- 14 days' validity, free time and storage days shown
- Photos move it fastest — four angles plus the base
Rather type than fill a form? WhatsApp four photos or email sales@trident-logistic.com.
