Site moves and relocations
A run of loads, planned as one job
Moving a site is not the same as booking a lorry. At the end of a contract there is a compound full of accommodation, stores, welfare units, drying rooms and plant, and all of it has to come off in an order that keeps the site working until the last day. Setting a site up runs the same way in reverse, with welfare and the site office needed before anything else is any use.
We plan that as one job. You give us the list and the dates, we work out how many loads it is and in what order, and the same vehicles and drivers run it through to the end. That matters more than it sounds, because by day three the driver knows the site, knows the gateway and knows which unit is going where.
Most of this work is around Greater Manchester and the North West, but a site closing in Manchester and reopening at the other end of the country is the same job with motorway in the middle, and we run those regularly.
What a site move involves
The work we take on
- Full compound clearance at the end of a contract
- Setting up a new site from a bare field or a cleared plot
- Site offices, canteens, drying rooms and toilet blocks
- Two storey cabin stacks, taken down and rebuilt with the staircases
- Container stores, secure units and tool stores
- Plant, generators, welfare vans and fuel bowsers
- Storage with us in the CCTV secured yard between the two sites
- Loads run to a programme over several days rather than one visit
- Part loads back to a supplier where units are going off hire
- Site to site moves across England, Scotland and Wales
The gap between the two sites
The part that catches people out is the middle. One site has to be clear by a fixed date, the next one is not ready for another three weeks, and the units have to be somewhere. We can take them into our CCTV secured yard in Manchester and hold them until you want them, then load them back out on our own lorries. No second haulier, no handover, and nothing sitting on a public road or a verge.
Email us with the two dates and the list of units, even if the second date is still moving. It is much easier to build a plan that has slack in it than to rescue one that never had any.
Common questions
Site moves, answered
What is the difference between this and a normal delivery?
A delivery is one load and one lift. A site move is a sequence. Units come out in an order, some go straight to the next site, some go to storage, and the last lorry off cannot leave until the compound is clear. We plan it as one job with a running order rather than book each load separately.
Can you store our units between the two sites?
Yes. We have CCTV secured yard storage at our Manchester base, which is what makes the gap between a site closing and the next one opening manageable. Units come out, sit with us, and go back out on our own lorries when the new site is ready for them. You are not paying to keep a compound open just to park cabins.
How long does a site clearance take?
It depends on how much is on there and how good the access is. A small compound can be off in a day. A full site with two storey accommodation, stores, welfare and plant is usually several days of planned loads. We will give you a realistic number of days when we have seen the list, not an optimistic one.
Do you work to our programme?
Yes, and we would rather have the programme early. Tell us the date the site has to be clear, or the date the first crew needs welfare on the ground, and we will work backwards from it. Where a handover date is fixed we build some slack in, because weather and other trades will take some of it.
Can you do both ends of the move?
That is the usual arrangement, and it is the one that works best. Same company lifting out and setting down means one person to deal with, one running order and no argument about what came off which site. We can also just do one end if the other is already covered.
What do you need to quote a site move?
A list of what is on the site, both addresses, and what the access is like at each end. Photographs of the compound help a lot. If you know which units are being scrapped rather than moved, say so, because that changes the running order.
