With the rapid growth of China’s economy and the expansion of its national defense efforts, there has been a substantial increase in the demand for transporting oversized freights. However, oversized equipment and engineering components often face the challenge of being “easy to manufacture but difficult to transport”, and this has led to transportation efficiency and safety becoming key issues hindering their development. The advancement of road transportation technology for oversized freights is pivotal for fostering innovation and development within the construction and manufacturing industries. This paper outlines the inherent characteristics associated with the road transportation of oversized freights and analyzes the prevailing issues. By examining the current state and future trends in the field of oversized cargo road transportation technology, this article provides insights into decision support technology for oversized cargo road transportation, safety assurance technology for oversized cargo road transportation, and design and control technology for heavy-duty vehicles. Furthermore, it offers development recommendations in four key areas: Improving traffic network planning and design, enhancing the oversized cargo road transportation system, addressing core technologies for heavy-duty vehicles, and refining services in the field of oversized cargo road transportation.

To serve the national strategy of building China’s strength in transportation, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) has added the discipline of transportation and vehicle engineering, which has been independently operated since 2020. After nearly four years of discipline construction, a funding system covering transportation modes (systems) such as roads, railways, waterways, aviation, aerospace, pipeline transportation, operational transportation, and comprehensive and new transportation has been established. The connotation and extension of each secondary code and its subordinate research directions in the new application code system, as well as future research hotspots, have been sorted and demonstrated, forming an optimization plan for the application code architecture based on the classification of transportation modes. This article provides a systematic explanation of the disciplinary framework. Focusing on the reform of the NSFC, this article further strengthens the “demand-driven and problem-oriented” approach, accelerates the implementation of achievements, and elaborates on key measures to promote the transformation of scientific research paradigms and carry out organized scientific research in the transportation and vehicle engineering discipline.