Exceptional Load Services

When it comes to the safe, effective transportation of irregularly-shaped, large, bulky and unusual loads, Exceptional Load Services Ltd. is the partner of choice. The thorough package offered by ELS includes everything from permit procurement and route surveys to escorting and traffic management. In business since 2000, Exceptional Load Services continues to move onwards and upwards.

Headquartered in Arklow, Exceptional Load Services specialises in supervising the nationwide movement of oversized loads. The company was established in 2000 by Edwin Sunderland and Arvid Akerlind. As the name suggests, its raison d'etre is to assist clients with the safe and effective movement of over-dimension loads. This is a meticulous, painstaking procedure, which has been approached in a thoroughly professional manner - thus the resounding success of ELS to date.

The founders of the company had been involved in escorting oversized loads for a couple of years prior to set-up and recognised the need for a specialist, dedicated management service. That's how Exceptional Load Services came to be.

ELS provides a full service, of which planning and preparation are integral parts. The first step is permit procurement, whereby relevant permits are secured from local authorities in the various areas affected by the journey.

Route surveys must also be conducted for the bigger loads. A route is chosen and surveyed to the finest detail. Often, loads (which could be twice the size of a normal every day truck and four times as heavy) may have less than four cms to spare at certain points along the way, which shows just how precise the route surveying leg of the procedure must be.

With the cargo in transit, Exceptional Load Services provides an escorting/pilot car service. This involves running pilot vehicles in front of and/or behind the load to alert road users to the presence of the oversized load. The escort remains in place for the duration of the journey, ensuring the safest possible delivery of the valuable cargo.

Traffic management is another important part of the overall package. Exceptional Load Services liaises with the Gardai, Councils and utility companies to arrange such details as parking restrictions, temporarily removing overhead wires or lights, removal of road signs, lane closures etc.

Exceptional Load Services maintains and updates its own comprehensive database, which covers every route in the country, including details such as bridge dimensions and road measurements. As ELS has no trucks of its own or related interests, it can claim to be genuinely independent, which means they can work in conjunction with hauliers as a bona fide partner.

As part of its escort service, however, Exceptional Load Services operates a fleet of four dedicated, purpose-fitted escort vehicles.
ELS liaises regularly with 36 different local authorities in the Republic of Ireland, as well as the relevant bodies in Northern Ireland and the policing authorities both sides of the border.

The company benefits from a steady supply of work. As Edwin notes: "We're kept fairly busy because we cover a wide cross-section of areas including permits, route planning, escorting and traffic management.

"The work can be unpredictable, so we have to be flexible at all times. We have to be able to adapt."

In this line of work, there is no such thing as a typical load. We could be talking about anything from generators to boilers; bottling plants to tarmac plants; basically, anything that's movable and too large or bulky to fit inside a conventional truck trailer.

One of ELS's pilot jobs was moving the LUAS trains from Rosslare to Dublin. More recently, wind farms account for a considerable proportion of work. These are extremely long loads, which are first delivered by ship to the nearest port and then brought up into the mountains - an operation which requires an enormous amount of patience and planning.

Exceptional Load Services also managed transportation of equipment to the ESB's power stations at Shannonbridge and Lanesboro.
Another major project overseen by Exceptional Load Services in April 2004 was the removal of two nitric acid towers from the closed-down IFI fertiliser factory in Arklow to the local port for shipment to China. Power and telephone lines spanning the roadside had to be temporarily removed to allow the cargo safe passage from factory to port. More recently, in 2005, ELS were involved in the management of the Irish Sugar plant re-location from Carlow to Mallow. This job took 4 days on the road and included the closure of the Mitchelstown to Mallow road while the loads passed.

ELS provides a nationwide service and operates extensively in Northern Ireland, with no journey considered too long or too short. Through eliminating potential problems at both ends and along the way, ELS lets the driver get on with his core task of driving his lorry.

Road safety is a major issue, and is placed ahead of all other considerations, including time. Edwin confirms: "Safety is our priority. There is no delivery time - you can only work with what you have in front of you on the road at any given time. While we might have a rough idea of when the load will arrive - and in 90% of cases that will be accurate - we make no promises regarding timing. We prefer to concentrate on getting the job done as safely and efficiently as possible.

"We afford our customers the utmost respect. At the end of the day, all loads are extremely valuable and our mission is to make sure we manage them in the most professional manner possible."

Exceptional Load Services are the foremost company in their field in Ireland. As market leaders of this service sector, they are an ideal sponsor of this section of irishtrucker.com

Exceptional Load Services
Ballymoyle, Arklow, Co Wicklow
Tel: 0402 31229
Fax: 0402 31257
Mob: 087 2549601
Email: permits@wide-loads.com