Both companies are owned by the same parent, Otter Tail Corporation, but have previously operated independently.
DMI intends to become a single point of contact for the wind turbine original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that traditionally co-ordinate transportation in the US market for all major wind components.
"It would be GE and Siemens and all those types of folks," says DMI spokeswoman Belinda Forknell. The company already has relationships with these turbine OEMs and is in discussions with several customers, she says.
While DMI will take the lead on sales and account management, Wylie will haul tower sections, blades and nacelles, along with other components and equipment. Forknell believes that this system will make it easier for OEMs and developers to co-ordinate deliveries and timelines.
"If we can package up the order and the delivery to the site, and they've got one point of contact and a package offering, we should be able to take out all the complexity and offer a more cost-effective plan," she says.
Experience
Wylie, which has been in the trucking business since the 1930s, is based in North Dakota. DMI maintains tower factories in North Dakota, Oklahoma and Ontario, Canada. "We are both very centrally located near where a lot of the projects are going in," Forknell says.
Wylie's modern tractor-trailer fleet, capable of carrying loads weighing up to 120 tonnes and 56 metres long, includes specialised equipment like schnable trailers and blade trailers. "They have the equipment ready to go and they've been using it with some of the turbine OEMs already for several years," Forknell says. "It's not like they need to make any investments to get started."
