Project cargo is freight that cannot be broken down — a transformer, a press, a prefabricated plant module — and therefore cannot be handed to a normal carrier at any price. This page draws the line precisely: the published limits it exceeds, the equipment and permits it needs instead, and the point where SMKlog is the wrong company to call.
If it could be split onto pallets, it would not be project cargo.
“Too big for parcel” is vague. The published numbers are not. Here is where each service actually stops.
| Service | Max weight | Max size | Above that |
|---|---|---|---|
| USPS Ground Advantage | 70 lb | 130 in length + girth | Not accepted |
| UPS and FedEx ground parcel | 150 lb | 108 in long, 165 in length + girth | Over-maximum-limits charge, and refusal beyond it |
| Standard LTL on a pallet | Practically to a few thousand lb per pallet | Fits a 48×40 footprint and a dock door | Moves to flatbed or specialized equipment |
| Project cargo | Tens of thousands of pounds and up | Beyond the legal road envelope | Permits, engineering, and purpose-built equipment |
The jump from the third row to the fourth is not a price increase, it is a change of industry. Rows one to three are bought from a tariff. Row four is engineered: somebody drives the route first, measures the bridges, and prices the answer.
Flatbed for the merely heavy; step-deck and double-drop to buy back height; multi-axle and self-propelled modular transporters for the genuinely large. Ocean legs go breakbulk or on a heavy-lift vessel with its own cranes, because the piece will not fit a container.
Anything outside the legal envelope needs an oversize or overweight permit from every state on the route, and the states do not all agree on limits or on which hours you may travel. Route surveys check bridge ratings, overhead lines and turning radii before a truck is booked.
Cranes, rigging and a pad to set the piece down on. A large share of project cost is not the miles at all — it is the lift at origin, the lift at destination, and the waiting time around both.
This is why project cargo has no rate table anywhere on the internet, including this one. Two identical machines going to two different addresses can differ several-fold, because the difference is what stands between the highway and the door.
What we can do is the part below the line. If the load breaks down onto pallets and fits standard LTL, the freight review form takes the dimensions and a person prices it. If it is parcel-sized after all — and machine parts often are, once they are crated individually — the calculator prices it instantly against USPS, UPS and FedEx.
If your piece is genuinely indivisible and over the road limits, the right call is a project or heavy-lift forwarder with permit and engineering capability in the states you are crossing. That is a specialist trade and it is worth going to it directly rather than through a parcel service.
Permit thresholds are set by each state and change; nothing on this page should be read as a permit rule for a specific route. Carrier limits are quoted from the carriers' own published pages on the date shown and are revised without notice.
Freight oversized, overweight or indivisible enough that it cannot be broken onto standard pallets: transformers, turbines, presses, pressure vessels, plant modules, mining and drilling equipment. The defining feature is that the piece cannot be split, so the transport is engineered around it.
It exceeds the published limits by an order of magnitude. USPS stops at 70 lb, UPS and FedEx at 150 lb and 165 in length plus girth. A single project piece is routinely tens of thousands of pounds, so no parcel tariff applies at all.
Flatbed, step-deck, double-drop or multi-axle trailers by road; breakbulk or heavy-lift vessels by sea; often rail in the middle. Road moves above the legal envelope need state permits, and frequently route surveys and escorts.
No. We sell US parcel labels and review palletized freight by hand. A genuine project move needs a heavy-lift forwarder with permit, engineering and rigging capability. Palletized and within LTL limits, use the freight review form; above that, go to a specialist.
Individually, against a route survey, permit costs, equipment type and crane time at both ends. There is no tariff. Two identical machines to two different addresses can differ several-fold.
Sometimes, and it is worth checking before assuming freight. Machine parts crated individually often land inside the 150 lb parcel envelope, which is a different price bracket entirely. The calculator will tell you in seconds.