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The carriers Bolaji Ige talks to who aren’t hauling oversized freight give one reason: the permitting process. Oversized and overweight freight is more intimidating, costly, and risky than traditional loads. But it can also pay 5-10 times the average spot market rate.

So, is it worth it? Ige certainly thinks so. She started Overdims to give carriers an easy way to quote the permitting process for over-dimensioned freight. We interviewed her to learn how carriers can get into this niche and be successful, while managing the risk.

Learn more about Overdims at overdims.com.

Episode Highlights

Oversized Freight Market

  • The trucking market has faced challenges with too much capacity and not enough freight, leading to financial struggles for many operators.
  • However, some carriers are making strategic decisions to position themselves for long-term success by specializing in niches like oversized freight.
  • Bolaji Ige, CEO and Founder of Overdims, has extensive experience in the trucking industry, with a background in corporate logistics and hands-on experience running a dispatching company.
  • Bolaji discusses how owner-operators and small fleets can increase their earnings by specializing in oversized freight, a $200 billion industry.
  • She explains the difference between oversized and over-dimensional freight and gives examples like construction equipment, farm machinery, and industrial components.

Challenges and Opportunities in Hauling Oversized Freight

  • The biggest barriers to entry are the lack of knowledge and the risk of substantial fines due to incorrect permits or other errors.
  • Bolaji shares an example of a driver who received a $36,000 fine, highlighting the financial risks involved.
  • While oversized loads offer higher rates per mile (sometimes up to $15 per mile), they also come with higher costs, such as increased fuel consumption, additional insurance, special permits, and the need for experienced drivers.
  • Bolaji explains that profitability depends on accurately calculating costs and passing these on to brokers or customers.

Steps to Get Into the Oversized Freight Business

Bolaji outlines the steps carriers should take to enter this niche:

  1. Ensure you have the right equipment.
  2. Acquire the necessary skills for handling oversized freight.
  3. Identify potential customers or find loads through load boards.
  4. Understand and manage the permit requirements, which vary by state.

Using Overdims:

  • Bolaji introduces the Overdims platform, which helps carriers calculate permit costs, determine the need for escorts, and manage other logistical challenges involved in transporting oversized loads.
  • The conversation concludes with a demonstration of the Overdims app and a discussion on how it can simplify the process of entering and succeeding in the oversized freight market.

Caroline: [00:00:00] Welcome to This Week in Trucking, the podcast that tells you what you need to know about the trucking market for the week. 

The story we’ve heard over and over again in the last 18 months has been this. The COVID trucking market drove too much capacity into the market. There’s too many trucks on the road for the amount of freight that is available to haul, and people are struggling to stay in business under these conditions.

It’s true that there’s still a pretty big spread between contract and spot rates. There are some signs that this is changing, but certainly not changing at the rate that we would like to see and not enough to make a real difference for individual carriers. And something that we’ve been saying on this show and even before we started This show is that just because the market is down for most people doesn’t mean it’s down for everyone.

And what I mean by that is that there are still plenty of people making sound long term [00:01:00] decisions that help them position themselves for success in the long run. 

So one of the decisions that you can make as an owner operator or a small fleet is to open yourself up to specialization. And that’s why this week we’re talking to Balaji Ige, CEO and founder of Overdims, about how you can multiply the rate you’re getting from brokers by accessing the 200 billion-dollar oversized freight industry. Thank you so much for being here. Balaji.

Bolaji: Thank you so much for having me, Caroline. 

Caroline: [I saw you on stage at the Mid America Truck Show] back in March. I recently rewatched your presentation. It’s available on YouTube, so we’ll link that in the description here. And in your introduction, you glossed over your background in the trucking industry, saying that you had a combined 500, 000 miles on the road each year in the US and 10 years of experience in the transportation and supply chain industry. First of all, you must have started when you were 12 years old. But can you talk about how you got into trucking?

Bolaji: So [00:02:00] my experience in trucking has actually started off my career from a corporate perspective. So I have been working for the various Fortune 500 different companies across, about 10 years now, working for companies who  move construction equipment, your large equipments, and then transportation companies. And so that was actually how I got my start in the trucking industry. I worked for a factory where it was my job to be able to get the trucking companies who would move the construction equipment that we needed to be moved. And so that was my first inkling into okay, what exactly does this process entail? And how do these businesses make money? And at the time, one of my biggest experiences was from the corporate side of the [00:03:00] table. 

And so I wanted to be able to understand it better from the other side of the table. Okay, as a mom and pop shop company, how did they make money? What does their business look like? What does their business model look like?

And so that was what actually led me into starting my dispatching company. And as the CEO and running a dispatching company, I had drivers and so that’s where I got the over 500, 000 miles on the road in terms of being able to be responsible for finding these loads, negotiating these loads, being working hand in hand with my clients.

From picking up of the load up until delivery of the load and getting paid and then being present with them through that entire process and seeing from having that first time experience of how their businesses works.

Caroline: So you were working on the corporate side, then decided to come over to the other side of the table, let’s say, so being the customer first and now on the other side of the table as the carrier, in this case through [00:04:00] dispatching, what is something you learned about the difference between those two areas of work?

Bolaji: The first thing that comes to mind, especially from a big company perspective, compared to your smaller business…is flexibility. For a bigger company…they’re way more stringent as opposed to as a smaller business. You have the opportunity to be able to determine, “today, I want to move this freight or today, I want to be able to move for this customer as opposed to moving for this other customer. And in a bigger company, you don’t have that level of flexibility.

It has to go through several levels of approvals and iterations and redlining and bureaucracy as opposed to as a smaller business, you get the opportunity to be able to decide your own future. So to say, you can make a [00:05:00] decision and say today, let’s go ahead and see if we can move X type of freight, which is different from the type of freight that I moved yesterday.

And you’re able to move forward quickly, do a test. Hey, did I like it? Did I not like it? Okay, maybe I didn’t like it. So let’s go back to what we did yesterday. Oh, yes, I like this. Okay, so let’s keep on moving forward with this direction. You’re able to make these decisions way quicker than in a bigger company.

Caroline: I think you’ve just hit on the core reason why so much of the trucking industry is moved by small companies. Because in the logistics space, sure, you have a lot of things that are planned, and they’re planned out very minutely, every mile, every decision, but there’s also all kinds of freight that needs to be moved, oh my God, tomorrow. So then a bigger carrier might not have the flexibility to be able to pick that up. A smaller carrier will have that flexibility to say, Yep, at this price. [00:06:00] Here you go. I can do it. And that’s pretty much why the spot market exists, right?

Bolaji: That is hitting the nail on the head. The spot market exists to be able to fill in these gaps, especially when we talk about the differences with our bigger companies, which typically tend to have these contracts and the contracts usually maybe on average lasts for one year.

For some, depending on the size of the company, we’re looking at three to five year long contracts for certain routes, but then as a business, you wake up one day and realize, oh my God, we have run out of parts. We need to get this part in yesterday. Who do you call? You call the smaller company that has the flexibility to be able to fill in on the fly.

Caroline: You said that it’s worth 200 billion last year, so 2023, and is growing by almost 5 percent every year. So when you talk about oversized freight, I usually think of things that I’ve seen on the road when I’m out on the highway, so things like prefab homes or wind turbines.[00:07:00]  What is oversized freight?

Bolaji: I’ll preface this and say, first of all, we have oversized and over dimensional. Those two words are usually used interchangeably, right? Because oversized or over dimensional freight is any freight that is bigger than the typical size.

So if it exceeds the standard legal limits for width, height or weight, it’s considered oversized or over dimensional. So most of the ones that we usually see are like your construction equipment – like your excavators, your bulldozers, your cranes – especially in the south where we have a lot of construction going on, especially during the summer. And then you see your farm equipment. So like your tractors, which are the ones we usually tend to see maybe in the Midwest area. And then we also have things like generators, HVAC units in industrial, [00:08:00] construction locations and then military equipment.

But I think some of the most fun ones are some of the boats or the yachts and you get to see these super yachts being moved and you’re like, okay, I want to meet the owner.

But yeah, so those will probably be the most common. And then sometimes we tend to see like the actual bridge girder, which is parts of bridges being moved. Depending on the season, you tend to see these with the construction equipment as well.

Caroline: Got it. So it has mostly to do with big industry, construction. Now, I know that we we recently saw a pretty big bipartisan bill go through last year, I think, about infrastructure, right? The Inflation Reduction Act. Is that something that you’re seeing come to fruition now in trucking? Are you seeing a lot more growth there because of that infrastructure work that’s funded by the federal government?

Bolaji: We are [00:09:00] seeing some uptick. So for example, in certain states like Louisiana, I’ve seen an increase in construction and road and bridge improvements and those certain projects, I think more of the increase that the uptick that we’re seeing now is still more on the Administrative side.

So we’re still seeing that the bids are just [moving through] the processes to be able to get this in place.

I do think that by maybe by next year, by the end of this year, by next year is where we will see a higher increase beginning to take place,

Caroline: Right.

Bolaji: We’ll be able to then see the real increase, especially in the demand of trucking companies that are needed to be able to fulfill this needs.

Caroline: The difference between a regular spot and market rate for a dry van load. A couple of days ago, I saw it was around 2.17 per mile in the [00:10:00] Midwest. And an oversized load, which can go 7, 8, sometimes 12, 15 a mile, that difference is huge. It’s enormous. Why isn’t everyone and their best friend signing up to get a trucking company and haul oversized freight in this business?

What have you heard from carriers? Why aren’t more people not doing this?

Bolaji: The biggest thing that I’ve heard is due to a lack of knowledge. There is a huge downside: we talk about you can make five times more by hauling oversized freight. However, you can also lose the shirt on your back if you do it the wrong way. I had a specific carrier who I ran into and they mentioned to me that they got a fine for thirty six thousand dollars. You guys one load, like they got pulled over by the DOT, ended up with a $36,000 fine for incorrect permits.

And [00:11:00] personally, I think there were other things going on there. But typically on average, your incorrect permits filing can run a carrier anywhere from $10,000 to $12,000, maybe $15,000 in fines, depending on what states they get that fine in. 

Caroline: That’s like a tow bill. That’s like getting your truck towed.

Bolaji: Yes. But one of the other things that we’ve seen is that if you get a $10,000 fine, usually that wipes out the entire profit for that load. Sometimes that could cost a driver, maybe their entire profit for the month. In the case of the driver that had the 36,000 fine, he mentioned that he was going to have to sell his company in order to be able to afford to pay this bill, like he would have to sell his truck. He’s an owner operator, only has one truck. So if he sells the truck he’s basically been put out of business because of this fine and so that is the reason why a lot of truck drivers are usually [00:12:00] hesitant to move over dimension freight because if they do it the wrong way – they don’t have the right permits, if they don’t pay attention to all the things that are required in order to be able to move the oversized loads – they run the risk of losing out on a huge amount of money.

Caroline: And we talk a lot about profitability on this show, and some people might point out that sure, the rate per mile is much higher, but not only is the risk of a huge fine always there, but everything about running oversized freight is also more expensive, so it takes more fuel. It requires additional insurance most of the time, it puts more wear and tear on your truck, on your tires. It always requires special permitting,

Bolaji: Yes.

Caroline: And it might require even additional training or a more experienced driver who knows how to move freight like that. And so at the end of the day, do carriers hauling these loads? Are they really able to make more profit per mile? How much more have you seen carriers make?

Bolaji: So the carriers hauling this loads usually are able to make more profit back per mile because ultimately, the best way that I’ve seen carriers who make profits, is to be able to make sure things like your permits, for example, are taken into consideration.

So I’m going to do a quick plug here and say, for example, using our app or our website, if you go on overdims.com, you’re able to get a quote for your routes in 30 seconds or less. What this means is that now: you know how much it’s going to cost you for this route for your oversized load. So, for example, if you go on the website, let’s say you are talking about a spot market [load], you go on one of the load boards, you see the route, it tells you the dimensions of the load, it tells you the pickup and the drop off location, you put all of that into [00:14:00] the Overdims app and you are able to get a quote and know how much it’s going to cost you. In addition to knowing how much it’s going to cost you, we also tell you, one, do you need an escort? What type of escort do you need? So do you need a civilian escort, or do you need a police escort? And how many do you need? And then how many do you need per state? So that you’re able to have all these costs upfront. 

The best way that I’ve seen for drivers who are actually profitable is take this cost and they also pass it along to the broker or to the customer that they’re running for. They tell them, Hey, this is the cost of my permits. And you’re able to just take that cost and then you, before you then factor in the cost of you actually running your business. So to ensure that you are able to still make your profits and you’re able to make sure this load is worth your time. But without having that, knowing that cost upfront, it’s harder. And then that’s when you see carriers who then tend to run [00:15:00] at a loss.

Caroline: So can you give us a step by step process of how to get into oversized freight business? So say I’m a carrier, I’m listening to this conversation. I’m thinking, all right, I can get $12 a mile, even if it is significantly more expensive. Maybe it’s three times as expensive. It’s still going to be worth it to me.

I’m still going to make more in profit off of a load like this. So how do you find loads? And then once you get those loads, how do you make sure that you have everything that you need for them?

Bolaji: So that is a very great question that I have a lot of carriers ask. The first thing that I would say is before you even think about moving an oversized load, the first question you need to ask yourself is, do you have the right equipment? Because if you have a dry van, there is no way you’re going to be able to move or carry the oversized loads, in general. 

So you need to make sure that you have the right size of truck. You need to make sure you have the right size of trailer. That is the very first step. Without this, you [00:16:00] cannot move forward. 

Now, the next step is to then be able to say, okay, yes, I have the right equipment…So now where do you find the loads? I would say the next step would be dependent on where you are. So let’s say you are a driver out of Texas. It tells me that there’s usually construction [and] it tends to be year round. If, for example, you’re in the Midwest that tells me, there’s going to be a lot of farming, which means you’re going to be looking at a lot of farm equipment. 

My next recommendation would be to be able to contact or know Google, literally just go on Google, use whatever your preferred search engine to determine what are the companies that move this type of [00:17:00] freight in your states. That will be your next step. And then you start calling on them to be able to get these as direct customers. 

Now, assuming you don’t want to go through all this, that’s fine. Go on the load boards. Any load board, pick your favorite one from the DAT, TruckStop I think there’s some oversized load boards now. Pick your favorite one. Any of them would work, go on there and then you’ll be able to filter specifically for your truck type or for your trailer type then be able to call the brokers and move on from there.

But I think more importantly than all of these – because it’s easy, you can call the broker and say, hey, and then they can give you the load – but you also have to ask yourself, do you have the skills necessary in the DOT handbooks. For various states, they actually have guidance on how to tie your loads to your truck. These are the little details that you have to make sure you are aware of so that you’re reducing your risk [00:18:00] of getting those high ticket fines. If you do get pulled over for whatever reason, you have to make sure that you have the skillset necessary. Do you know how to back up or reverse the step deck when you have an oversized load on your truck, because it’s usually depending on the load…there’s no visibility. Do you know how to do that? You have to be able to make sure you have these extra skills, sure that once you do get that load you are ready to go and then finally the final thing that matters here is making sure that you are aware that you need permits. One of the things that you got to love about the trucking industry is that every single state has its own permits and requirements. So like everything else in the trucking industry being fragmented, so is the permitting process. What  that really means is that you can have two states. You can have two neighboring states. So let’s [00:19:00] [say] Mississippi and Tennessee – they share a border. There are people who live across one border and work in the other.

The funny thing, if you have to be able to get a permit across both states, you cannot get a Tennessee permit. and then expect that would cover you once you cross the Mississippi border. You have to be able to understand and identify what are the permit requirements for each state based on the dimensions of the load that you have and then do you get the permits for that?

For those states that you’re going to be crossing. These are the major things you have to make sure. So think of it as a checklist. 

We have a checklist that we usually recommend especially to new carriers who are new to moving over dimension freight, or even if you’re a pro, just to make you can have that as one of your priorities – a checklist of things to do before you get on the road. Make sure you walk yourself through [00:20:00] each one of those to make sure that you have all these items complete before you’re ready to move. And that would help reduce your risk of getting those high fines that we talked about earlier.

Caroline: States have their own permitting process. They also have their own costs. So depending on how many states you’re going through, that can be a multiple of the cost for permitting, right?

Bolaji: yes,

Caroline: Can you show us what it looks like to get all of those permits quoted on Overdims?

Bolaji: Sure. We can definitely do a walkthrough on overdims.com. 

Caroline: Nice.

Bolaji: Here is what the Overdims app currently looks like. So one of the things that I really love about this is the simplicity. So you can go in here and select your state. 

Caroline: Let’s say we’re going from [00:22:00] Michigan to Texas. I’m going to come and visit you.

Bolaji: So let’s start. Give me a city.

Caroline: Traverse City.

Bolaji: Traverse. Okay, so we pick a city.

I’m currently in Houston, Texas. So let’s go with Texas and Houston as our destination. One of the things that I love is that you can find the zip codes, especially because I know on the load boards, you may not know your delivery zip code. So you’re able to fine tune and provide like an additional address once you have that information from the broker. 

So now for load length because we do this in inches. So we put here, so let’s use 700 inches. And then for load width, we can use something like 130. For load height, we can use 170 inches. And for load weight, we can use 115,000 pounds. So the load weight being the total weight between the freight and the truck. 

So as we know, the total weight [00:23:00] legal limits is 80,000. Pounds. So this is about 35,000 pounds over. and so now this specific load that we just did, we are running for a load that is both oversized and overweight. And if any of you are timing this, you can go ahead and time it. It is probably yes. While we see the screen spinning, you can have your time on. The goal here is to make sure that this is 30 seconds or less, and that in 30 seconds or less, you would be able to Get a quote for your route and be able to provide that and look at that before I got done with my sentence We have our available routes So one of the best things that I love here is we actually tell you how many permits you need.

According to our online routes in platform. There are two different routes The first route gives you an option where you would go through only five states So then you would need only [00:24:00] five permits Or the next route gives you an option where you go through six states and then you would need six permits instead. 

Let’s pick the six states route because you know your family lives in illinois And you would like to be able to drive through illinois and see them while you are visiting. So now we pick this and as you can see here this next screen shows you your route cost so it tells us That for the specific route that we chose, and for the specific weights that we chose, apparently through all of these, there are zero police escorts needed, and zero civilian escorts needed. It also tells us that this load based on all the dimensions is not considered a super load. So as a really quick plug in super loads are loads that usually start from 250, 000 pounds in weight. And those ones usually require bridge analysis by the different states. [It] also tells you how [00:25:00] many miles you’re expecting to travel within each of these states. And so it also tells you any additional fees required for the states. And so for example, we can see here that for the state of Michigan, your cost is 50 and there are no additional fees for the state of Michigan. However, for example, for the state of Illinois, they charge you an additional credit card fee of 2.25% of your total cost so then and it gives you that number so you don’t need to do math. The state of Missouri charges you a two percent credit card fee in addition to a 0.25 transaction fee. We break all of this down for you so you have that information. Now for this route and the dimensions that we chose, this tells us that this route has a total cost of $1,241. …Your total cost, depending on what plan that you have with Overdims.

One thing that I typically tend to recommend to my drivers is to go ahead and use this total number here when you’re providing your bid to the broker or your bid to the customer or whoever, to be able to make your bid for a load because what you don’t want is to give them the lower number and then we end up needing this additional 10 percent hold and now you are out of money, So I tend to recommend to my drivers go ahead and give them this total number here if we don’t need it, then it’s an additional profit for you. And it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it

Caroline: Definitely.

Bolaji: Now the next step would be…we take all [your] information that is required by the state. By getting all this information from you upfront – your driver’s license info, your truck license info, registration, trailer license plate type, trailer States, number of axles, what is the gross axle weight for your trailer – by getting all this information, we’re able to skip the back and forth. We don’t need to call you on the phone to say, Hey, we know you just filed a request for a permit. Okay. Now we need to know what type of truck you drive. Okay. Now what is the number of axles? This is all the information that is needed by the States. I

f you had to file your permit by yourself, you would have to go through every state. We identified six states in this route. You would have to go six different times to each of these states websites to go and type in all this information manually. The beauty of using Overdims is that it’s one and done. [00:29:00] All you have to do is fill this information out once…We save your information so you’re able to just pull back up the information that is already saved on your profile and be able to have that information so you can breeze through all of this and you would end up coming up on the review page which allows you to be able to review all the information for accuracy and then hit submit for us to be able to file that permit for you. The biggest thing also that I would mention here is that I have a lot of customers today for overdims who don’t actually use over dims to file their permits and just use overdims for the convenience of being able to get that quote…

Bolaji: I can take that time. And I like to learn. I like to be hands on. And that is very great. But I think one of the biggest things that I. Found [00:30:00] is that a lot of customers love is the efficiency, the ability to be able to get that quote in 30 seconds or less is unmatched in the market today, and that opportunity allows you to be more competitive and beat out your competition in order to get a get your bid in to your customers or to your broker, whoever quicker than your competition. difference. Is what makes all the difference in whether or not you get that load or not

Caroline: Definitely. And I can imagine where even just being able to tell a broker all right, give me the details about the load. I’m thinking about it. Okay. I can see here it’s going to, I’m probably going to spend about 1, 200 on permits. That already positions you as somebody who really knows what they’re talking about, right?

Bolaji: Having that information at the tip of your [fingres] is the ability to show your customer, whether it’s the [00:31:00] broker or your direct customer, hat you are prepared. It means they don’t have to wait because today the other options are one, you can take the three hours going through each individual state’s website to say, okay, let’s go to Michigan.

Let’s go to Missouri. Let’s go to Illinois. You could take that three hours to be able to go through each one of these, or you can have this information at the tip of your fingers. And now they’re wondering, wow, how did they know this? And you automatically come across as a pro. And they’re more likely to trust you because you were able to provide them this information up front.

Caroline: Totally. And I can imagine where oversized freight probably requires a little bit more trust and relationships with your customers than regular spot market freight does.

Bolaji: Yes. I have had a situation where a driver an [00:32:00] overdims driver was required to come and take over a load from another driver…in the middle of the interstates. Obviously, the broker was not happy.

This then became an emergency situation for the Overdims driver to then try and get a new permit to go and replace this driver. I’m picking up the load in the middle of the side of the road interstate. Things like that are where you tend to see the inexperience of drivers. And so as a broker or as a customer who is moving these types of freight. Usually, on average as well, your oversized freight, Is usually probably worth more than your regular type freight.

Let’s take a superyacht for example. The superyachts run anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million and above in cost. So you are not going to [00:33:00] have a superyacht tipping over on the middle of the interstate. You would do everything possible to be able to vet the drivers who you’re going to allow to move that load. And so it does require an extreme level of trust and you being able to set yourself apart by showcasing your preparedness, showcasing you’re taking the initiative to have all this information handy. All of that all just does is it builds more trust. And you as a carrier, as opposed to somebody who is, who has, who is less prepared, who is less knowledgeable about the space.

Caroline: Absolutely. This is a great tool for carriers, I think. If you’re interested, we’ll leave a link in the description so you can check out Overdims. Can you get, can you talk about a little bit about the different plans that you have for different types of companies? Is it different prices per number of trucks that you’ve got or number of permits?

Bolaji: [00:34:00] So our Overdimds plans today can be found on overdims.com. What we are currently doing is today it is actually not dependent on the company size – [unless] you have 20 trucks and above and then we do a custom quote for you – but if not if you have anything less than 20 trucks, which is usually most of our customers…any of our regular plans work perfectly. 

The reason why the silver is our most popular option is because [00:35:00] one, it comes with three free permits included with your subscription. Outside of the day pass, where you get 24-hour access. 

If you just want to run only one quote or let’s say you only want to run two quotes or something, I usually recommend get the bronze tier because with the bronze tier your permit, assuming you do choose to use Overdims to file your permit, you’re filing that permit for less than $100. Opposed to with the day pass, you file your one permit for about 150, and between that and the cost of the fee for the day pass, you might as well have just bought the bronze tier. And now with the bronze tier, one of the benefits also is that you get [00:36:00] to have this for the entire month. So it’s not just this price for one day, like the day pass is, where you get this access for the entire month. One thing that I will also talk about is that for any of our monthly tiered plans, so which is our bronze, silver or gold, you get the entire, you get your first five days for free. So which means you can run as many quotes to your heart’s content as you would like in those first five days. And you will not be charged.

So when you try to sign up on the website, we don’t charge you the first for the first five days. And now, if you decide for some reason that you know what, this is day three, maybe I’m just not liking Overdims as much as I thought I would, you can cancel and no questions asked. You don’t get charged. That’s it. You go your separate, we go our separate ways. However, I know you would love Overdims you’re more likely to stay. What I found is that, especially for the customers [00:37:00] who tend to specialize in overdimension freight movements, and they move about an average of one oversized load per week. If you’re moving an average of one per week that tells me that in a month you need at least three to four, permits. That’s the reason why most of our customers like the silver tier because with the silver tiered plan. You get three permits for free included in your cost and so maybe at most you have to pay for the cost of filing only one additional permit but if not usually for this fee you get all your permits filed like you get your three permits filed for you And you can have as many quotes as possible during The month as you would like something that I will also do, you know for our special listeners of The show today I will give Caroline a special unique discount code to where you are able to get a 15 percent off your Subscription fee if you use [00:38:00] this discount code and that would be a permanent 15 percent. So for as long as you keep your account active with us, your price will be kept at this 15 percent discounts.

Caroline: That is a huge plus for our listeners. And I hope all of our customers are doing this and making more money for their businesses because that is what we want at the end of the day. Bolaji, if you were to give any advice to newer carriers thinking about doing oversized freight, what is the most important thing that you would tell them?

Bolaji: The most important thing that I would tell any new courier is honestly, outside of get Overdims, make sure you understand your permits. At the end of the day, you do not want to lose track of your revenue [00:39:00] because you lost it to a DOT fine. You don’t want to have to be put out of business for something that could have been avoidable. And the biggest ways are the state department is not trying to trick you on your permit documents on each of their state websites. Because they have now, it’s about 80 pages long, but they have all the requirements that they want to see in a permit. And so if you make yourself comfortable sure that whichever state that you live in, that the permits websites or the permit handbook from that state becomes your best friend. That would be my one advice is make sure you familiarize yourself with all the permit requirements in your state or in the states that you will be running with.

Caroline: Yeah, definitely. All right, to close out, I’m going to show you something. So I went to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan over the weekend, and I went to their historical center, which was very fun. It’s this little town in, in the middle of the wilderness it’s outside of Marquette, Michigan, which is the largest city in the Upper Peninsula, but it’s still not that large of a city.

And in the early 20th century there was a mining company working in Negaunee, and it had [00:41:00] drilled so much beneath the town that it started sinking in. The whole town was sinking in and houses were starting to sink into the earth. And so they were going to either have to get rid of the house raise the houses and the churches, school, everything there, or they gave residents an option. Either we’ll raise your house and we’ll buy you a new one across town, or we can move your house for you. So this was I was thinking about this because I thought I’m going to talk to Balaji this week And I’m gonna have the best oversized freight story to share with her. So I’m gonna try and look up some pictures of this. It is, it was crazy. We’re gonna try and find some pictures of this but there were literally tractors that would pull [00:42:00] entire houses, not like prefab homes, not mobile homes no.

Bolaji: The beauty of it is that it is still the same process. It has a length, it has a width, it has a height, and it has a weight. So as far as you know those four dimensions, you can get a permit for it. 

Caroline: There you go. That’s all you need. It’s that simple. It is that simple. All right, Bolaji. Thank you so much for joining us today. We were really excited to talk to you. I’m glad that we got a chance to talk about [00:43:00] oversized freight and how carriers can make more money for their businesses because that’s what we want.

We want people to be able to be more profitable and spread that, those gains across their communities. That is what we’re all about supporting those small businesses. So Thank you so much, Bolaji, and I hope you have a great day.

Bolaji: Thank you so much Caroline for having me. Talk to you later. 

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Caroline Asiala
Caroline Asiala is the Digital Marketing Manager at Bobtail. With a background rooted in advocating for migrant rights, Caroline leverages her expertise in content creation to support small trucking businesses, many of which are immigrant-owned and operated, with the information they need to make their businesses thrive.

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