Container transport
Containers moved, and put exactly where you want them
A shipping container is an awkward thing to move if you only have a flatbed. It is heavy, it is the wrong shape for most lifting equipment, and the place it has to end up is rarely the place a lorry can park. That is the job a HIAB is built for.
Our lorries carry the box and lift it. We come to you, set the outriggers down, take it off the bed on chains, swing it over whatever is in the way and set it down level. Then we are gone. There is no forklift to book, no second vehicle, and nobody from your side needs to be standing there with a machine.
We are based in Manchester and we work across the UK. A box moving across a yard in Salford and one going from here to the far end of England, Scotland or Wales are the same job to us, one with more motorway in the middle, and we do plenty of both.
What we move
The work we get asked for
- Delivery from a supplier's yard to your site
- Collection at the end of a hire or a contract
- Repositioning a box within one site
- Site to site moves as a project finishes and another starts
- Stacking containers two or three high where the ground allows it
- Containers converted to offices, stores, drying rooms and welfare units
- Freezer and refrigerated units
- Boxes with stairs, walkways or roof platforms already fitted
- One box, or a run of them over a few days
- Lifts over a fence or a wall where the lorry cannot get alongside
The sizes we move
- 8ft and 10ft stores, the small ones that fit down the side of a house or into a yard corner
- 15ft and 16ft boxes, a useful size where a 20ft will not turn in
- 20ft, the size most sites and most hire fleets use
- 20ft and 40ft high cubes, a foot taller than the standard box
- 30ft boxes
- 40ft, and 45ft where the route and the access allow it
- Open top, flat rack and side opening containers
- Modified boxes, which weigh more than the bare box they started as
Access is the thing that decides it
Nine times out of ten, the question is not whether it can be lifted. It is whether the lorry can get into a position to lift it. A HIAB reaches out and over, but it reaches from wherever the lorry is standing, and the further out it has to work the more carefully the lift has to be planned.
So when you email, tell us what is in the way. A parked car, a hedge, an overhead cable, a narrow gateway, a soft verge. None of those necessarily stop the job. All of them change which vehicle we send and how long we need.
Common questions
Container transport, answered
What size containers can you move?
All the usual sizes: 8ft and 10ft stores, 15ft and 16ft boxes, 20ft, 30ft, 40ft and 45ft, high cubes, open tops, flat racks and side openers. The modified ones too, offices, drying rooms, freezer units and boxes with stairs or platforms welded on. Tell us the length and roughly what has been done to it and we will tell you which vehicle suits it.
Do you need a forklift or lifting gear on site?
No. The HIAB is on the lorry. We arrive, set the legs down, lift it off and place it where you want it, then leave. Nothing else has to be arranged and nobody has to meet us with lifting kit.
Can you move a container that is already full?
Sometimes, and it depends entirely on what is in it and how it is packed. A loaded box is a very different lift from an empty one. Email us and tell us what is inside before you assume either way.
Can you just move one a few feet across a yard?
Yes, and it is a common job. Repositioning within one site is usually quicker and cheaper than people expect, because there is no journey in it.
Can you supply the container as well?
Yes. We sell containers as well as moving them, so the box and the lorry that delivers it can both come from us. Tell us the size you need when you email. If you already have one, we will collect it from wherever it is.
What do you need to know before quoting?
The size of the box, where it is now, where it is going, and what the access is like at both ends. Access is the thing that changes the answer most, so mention it even if you think it is obvious.
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