Behind the Wheel of Success

At Kivi Bros. Trucking, Inc., heavy hauls as massive as 270,000 pounds are hardly out of the ordinary. The company specializes in safely and efficiently handling oversized and overweight permitted loads, relying on a fleet of heavy haul tractors and trailers, meticulous planning and a team of highly experienced and well-trained drivers.

Headquartered in Duluth, Minnesota, Kivi Bros. Trucking offers its heavy haul services across the continental United States, as well as in Alaska and Canada. “We specialize in moving industrial, construction, pipeline and railroad equipment,” said Dakota Kivi, freight business development director. “As a heavy haul and open deck specialist, we transport cranes, material handlers, mining and construction trucks and machines, large transformers, fabricated steel structures and power plant and paper mill components.”

Crane hauls are a key area of expertise for Kivi Bros. The company routinely transports crawler and rough terrain models for manufacturers, including Manitowoc, Liebherr and Link-Belt, as well as dealers and crane rental operations. One of the biggest cranes Kivi has hauled several times is a Terex Demag CC 6800 lattice boom crawler with a 1,680-U.S.-ton lifting capacity and a maximum boom length of 314 feet.

“On any heavy haul, planning and coordination are essential,” Kivi said. “With permitted loads, we must follow carefully planned routes on pre-determined schedules. We conduct route surveys to be sure we’re on approved roads and to identify obstacles like tight turns and utilities that might have to be moved to give us clearance.”

Kivi also stressed the importance of having qualified pilot car operators. “We have some escort vehicles in-house but have been fortunate to have good service and coverage by outsourcing,” he related.

Incredibly important as well for Kivi Bros heavy haul loads is having durable equipment. Currently, in the fleet are standard three-axle, 34 four-axle and two five-axle tractors. The four-axle power units are primarily Western Star 49X models with 15-liter, 565-hp Detroit engines and fully automatic Allison transmissions. The tractors also have double frames, 46,000-pound capacity Dana full-locking tandem drives and a pusher axle in the second position. Five-axle tractors add a second pusher axle behind the drives for additional carrying capacity when needed.

The Kivi fleet of about 80 heavy haul trailers includes configurations with as many as 13 axles. The models range from 55- to 70-ton capacities and there are both East and West Coast setups. Across its fleet, the carrier fields flatbed, step deck, sliding axle, double drop and removable gooseneck (RGN) units.

Most of the Kivi Bros heavy haul trailer fleet is made up of Fontaine models. “We also have TRAIL-EZE units and Goldhofer modular platform trailers for unique transport challenges, and we recently added Trail King trailers for some applications,” Kivi related. “Those units have adjustable hydraulic necks so we can use them at lower deck heights.”

Equally essential, behind the wheel at Kivi Bros during heavy hauls are a special breed of drivers. “Our drivers all receive specialized training in-house, and they gain experience working with veteran operators until everyone is confident,” Kivi said. “The day a driver stops learning is the day things start going wrong.

“Drivers are hard to find across the industry, and it’s an even greater challenge in a heavy haul operation,” Kivi continued. “We’re fortunate, though, to have good tenure, so we have skilled, dedicated and hardworking drivers at all times.”

The Kivi Bros. maintenance operation also plays a key role in successful heavy hauls. Included is a fabrication team that is skilled in adding wear bars, D rings, chain boxes and specialty outriggers to trailers as needed.

“Our own staff handles as much maintenance in-house as possible,” Kivi related. “At our home location, we also have nearby dealers if we need to outsource any work, and we receive great support from trusted partners on the road.

“We focus heavily on making sure our maintenance team is familiar with our equipment,” Kivi continued. “By knowing what to look for and address, we can avoid breakdowns during heavy hauls. That is critical because oversize and overweight permits are truck and time-specific, and rental replacements are rarely an option.

“This proactive approach that is focused on finding and fixing issues before they cause a problem on the road is about paying extra attention to every detail,” Kivi added.

In the heavy haul business, Kivi noted, every day brings new challenges. “It’s never boring, but something always pops up,” he said. “Despite the stress and pressure, though, there is great satisfaction when you get through all the hurdles, when all the things that had to go right did.

“That success stems from avoiding complacency, always learning and adapting, and most of all teamwork,” Kivi continued. “There could be as many as 50 people involved in operations management, driving and maintenance support for one of our heavy hauls, which means there must be an extremely high level of coordination. The reason this works is because every one of those people knows that failure is not an option.

“As a family-owned company in our third generation of business, we have a very strong sense of pride and commitment,” Kivi added. “We are always firmly focused on the success of both our customers and our employees, and to make that happen, we work as a team to provide the very best innovative heavy haul solutions.”