HIAB haulage, Manchester and across the UK
Carrying the load is half the job
Most people come to us because of the lift. Haulage customers come the other way round: they have something that needs moving from one place to another, and the lifting is simply the part nobody has worked out yet. Booking a HIAB solves both halves at once.
The vehicle does the journey with your load on the bed, and the lifting arm is bolted to that same vehicle. So there is no second contractor to arrange at the delivery end, nothing to hire in, and nobody standing about on site waiting for a machine that is running late. The lorry arrives, the driver sets the legs down, and the load comes off where you want it.
We run out of one yard at Drewett Street in Miles Platting. Greater Manchester and the North West are day to day work. Beyond that the lorries go wherever the job is, and a run into the Midlands, down to the South West or up into Scotland is planned exactly the same way as a run across the city.
What we carry
The loads that come to us as haulage
- Shipping containers between sites, yards and depots
- Portable cabins, welfare units and modular buildings
- Excavators, dumpers, boom lifts and site machinery
- Steel beams, columns and fabricated steelwork
- Precast concrete planks, panels, kerbs and bollards
- Tanks, silos, vessels and process equipment
- Glamping pods and garden rooms from the maker to the site
- Scaffolding tube, boards and fittings for the scaffold trade
- Palletised and bagged materials that have to land on the working area
- One off items that no ordinary haulier wants to take
One price for the journey and the lift
A haulage job with us is quoted as one job. The mileage, the time on site and the lifting are all in the same figure, rather than a delivery charge with a lifting charge added on afterwards. That is easier to check against a budget and easier to pass on to a client.
It also means there is one company answering for the load from the moment it comes off the ground at the collection point to the moment it is set down at the other end. If something about the access turns out to be awkward, it is our problem to have planned for, not a conversation between two contractors on your site.
How a haulage booking runs
From the enquiry to the load on the ground
| Stage | What happens | What we need from you |
|---|---|---|
| The enquiry | We read it, work out which vehicle suits the load and come back with a price for the whole job. | What the load is, the postcode at both ends, and a photograph of the access if you have one. |
| Planning the lift | The lift is worked out before the lorry is booked, including where the vehicle stands and what is overhead. | Anything unusual about either end: narrow gates, soft ground, cables, parked cars, restricted hours. |
| Collection | The driver loads, secures and sheets or straps the load as the journey requires. | Someone who can point at the right item, and a time the yard or site is open. |
| The run | One driver and one vehicle for the whole journey, so nothing is transhipped on the way. | Nothing. We will tell you if anything changes. |
| Setting down | Outriggers down, ground checked, load lifted off the bed and placed where it has to finish up. | Clear space for the lorry to stand, and somebody who knows exactly where the load goes. |
On the road
Where the lorries spend their week
Manchester in the morning, the motorway in the afternoon, and a good deal of the country in between.
Common questions
HIAB haulage, answered
What makes HIAB haulage different from ordinary haulage?
An ordinary flatbed gets your load to the address and then stops, because it has no way of taking it off. A HIAB carries the lifting gear with it, so the same vehicle that did the journey also puts the load exactly where it has to finish up. On a lot of jobs that is the difference between a delivery and a finished job.
Do you do haulage without any lifting?
Yes, often. Plenty of our work is straight carrying where the site has its own forklift or telehandler. You are welcome to book the lorry for the transport alone. Most people take the HIAB anyway once they realise it costs nothing extra to have it on the vehicle.
How far do you run?
Across England, Scotland and Wales. Greater Manchester and the North West are everyday work, the Midlands and Yorkshire are routine, and we run the length of the country regularly enough that a job in Cornwall or the Highlands is planned the same way as one in Salford.
I searched for HIAB haulage near me. Do you cover my area?
The yard is at Miles Platting in Manchester and the lorries run out from there, so anywhere in Greater Manchester or the North West is close work. Beyond that we still come, it is simply booked a little further ahead. Tell us both ends of the journey and we will say straight away whether we can cover it and when.
What should I ask when I am comparing HIAB haulage companies?
The useful question is whether the lifting gear is on the lorry that does the journey, because that is what decides whether anything else has to meet you on site. After that it is worth asking who the driver works for, and whether the price you are given covers the lift as well as the miles. Ours does, and our drivers are on our own books.
Can you collect from one address and deliver to another?
That is most of what we do. A machine collected from a dealer and delivered to a site, a cabin taken off one job and set up on the next, a tank picked up from the fabricator and put onto its base. Both ends are planned before the lorry leaves.
What do you need to know to price a haulage job?
What the load is and roughly what it weighs, the postcode at each end, and what the access is like where it has to be set down. Access is the part that changes the price most, so mention the narrow entrance, the overhead cables, the soft ground or the parked cars even if it feels obvious.
Is the driver the same person who does the lift?
Yes. Our drivers are trained and assessed to ALLMI and CPCS standards and they work the lifting arm themselves. Nobody else has to attend, and there is no handover halfway through the job.
