M6, Todhills
Carlisle, ten miles from the Scottish border. The northern end of a normal English run.
England · Scotland · Wales
Areas covered
One yard in Manchester and a fleet of hiab lorries that go wherever the work is. Here is what national coverage actually looks like, with the photographs to go with it.
On the network
Where the vehicles actually are
Named places on the trunk network, plus Cranage at the top of this page. Not a coverage map — a record of the runs.
M74, Coatsgate
Beattock summit, southern Scotland. Scottish work runs up the M6 and over the border on the M74.
M6, Killington Lake
Cumbria, on the climb over Shap. The stretch every northbound job crosses.
M6, Gailey
Staffordshire, south of Stafford. The middle of every run between Manchester and the south.
A1(M), Bramham
West Yorkshire. The eastern route out, for North Yorkshire, Teesside and the north east.
M1, Brockhall
Northamptonshire. The Midlands and London corridor.
M40, Warwickshire
The other southern route, for Oxfordshire, the Thames Valley and the south east.
M5, Strensham
Worcestershire, south of Birmingham. The gateway to the south west and to south Wales.
M50
The Ross Spur into Herefordshire and on towards south and mid Wales.
Where we run from
One depot, not twenty
Nortons Hiab Services operates from a single seven-acre yard at Miles Platting in Manchester. Every vehicle starts and finishes there.
The towns and counties further down have a page each because we have carried out jobs in them. Those jobs are in our portfolio, photographed on the day, and that is why those are the places showcased here. If your town is not among them, it does not mean we do not go there.
The pictures above are Nortons vehicles at named service areas from the Scottish border to the West Country, taken on ordinary working days.
Town pages
Places with a documented job behind them
Every one of these has photographs of our vehicles working there.
Hiab hire in Liverpool
Merseyside — Arena deliveries at the Liverpool waterfront, stadium and construction lifts across the city, and city-centre structural deliveries.
Hiab hire in Birmingham
West Midlands — Site accommodation compounds delivered and set out for a national contractor in Birmingham, plus residential and city lifts.
Hiab hire in Blackpool
Lancashire — Helicopter airframe lifted and loaded for road transport at Blackpool Airport, plus general delivery work across the Fylde.
Hiab hire in Derby
Derbyshire — Site accommodation and welfare compound delivered and positioned for a flood alleviation scheme in Derby.
Hiab hire in Ripon
North Yorkshire — Process plant and industrial machinery delivered into works in the Ripon area.
Hiab hire in Lancashire
Lancashire — Accommodation cabins delivered to Hesketh Bank for seasonal pickers to live in, a cement conveyor loaded at Burscough, and a cabin craned into a football ground at Accrington.
Hiab hire in Bolton
Greater Manchester — A forty foot by twelve foot office with a kitchen and toilet delivered to a scaffolding contractor in Bolton, set down in the yard and then stacked over a container.
Hiab hire in Blackburn
Lancashire — Stillage racks loaded and strapped, steel alongside a stone built unit, process vessels on the bed and a wagon working a cobbled lane. Material into working buildings, which is most of what we carry in east Lancashire.
Hiab hire in Preston
Lancashire — Wrapped panels slung and strapped, a long unit off a distribution yard, and containers set onto a compound. Light for their size, easy to damage and slow to secure.
Hiab hire in Stockport
Greater Manchester — A refurbished cabin set-up delivered to Romiley Board Mill and lifted in from the yard, on ground with a fall across it and a mill wall on two sides.
Hiab hire in Warrington
Cheshire — A scaffolding load collected at Hartlepool and delivered into Warrington, loaded out of the yard at first light.
Hiab hire in Wigan
Greater Manchester — A 14ft wide medical pool on the road to Wigan, rigged on the bed, and lifted in through the gap between two houses on a new build, plus modular units set into a compound.
Hiab hire in Cheshire
Cheshire — A kiosk unit craned onto its base at Winsford, brick pallets into a street at Ellesmere Port, a load of electrical panels running down the M6 from Ellesmere Port to London, and a commercial truck wash lifted at Lymm. All photographed on the job.
Hiab hire in Trafford
Greater Manchester — Modular units craned into position at the cricket ground at Old Trafford in 2016. The ground is in Trafford, which is why the photographs are on this page.
Manchester and the North West are worked from the yard every day and now have pillar pages of their own: Hiab hire in Manchester · Hiab hire across the North West
What makes distance workable
Three things that decide a long-distance job
Backloads. A vehicle running home empty costs the same as one running home loaded. Where a return load exists we use it, and that is what makes a job three hundred miles away price sensibly.
Our own escorts and notices. UK-wide wide load exemption notices and our own escort vehicles, so an abnormal movement is not waiting on a force escort with a fourteen-day lead time. Statutory notice is a minimum of two working days.
Euro VI throughout. The 32-tonne and 44-tonne wagons we run are Euro VI, so clean air zones in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Bath, Sheffield, Portsmouth, Bradford, Tyneside, Greater Manchester and Scotland's low emission zones are simply not a conversation.
Common questions
Coverage, answered
How far do you travel?
England, Scotland and Wales - mainland Great Britain. Manchester is the only depot, so everything runs out from Miles Platting — the M6 north to Carlisle and the M74 into Scotland, the M6 and M5 south into the Midlands and the West Country, and the M62 and A1(M) east across the Pennines.
Do you have depots around the country?
No. One yard, seven acres, at Miles Platting in Manchester.
Is a long-distance job more expensive?
Less than people expect. Distance is real but it is rarely the biggest number on a hiab quote — crane size, radius, access and time on site all move it more. A distant job that pairs with a return load can price better than a local one that does not.
Can you run abnormal loads across the country?
Yes. We hold wide load exemption notices covering the whole United Kingdom and we run our own escort vehicles, which matters because a police escort requested through a force generally carries a fourteen-day lead time. Statutory notice for an abnormal movement is a minimum of two working days.
Why do you not have a page for every town?
Every town and county page here is written around what the work in that place is actually like - the access, the ground, the roads in - and where we have photographs of jobs there, they are on the page. If your town is not listed it does not mean we do not go there.
Which parts of the UK do you actually reach in a day?
Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cheshire and most of Yorkshire are comfortably a same-day round trip from Miles Platting. The Midlands, the North East and North Wales are usually a day out. Scotland, the West Country and the South East are planned as overnight or two-day jobs, and often price better than people expect because they pair with a return load.
Wherever it is going
Tell us what needs lifting or transporting and where it has to end up. Distance is rarely the thing that decides the price.
