Container transport
Shipping containers collected, carried and set down where you want them, by the same wagon that brought them.
Container transport
Hiab lorries · Mainland UK
What we lift and carry
One crew, one lorry, one visit. Our wagons carry their own cranes, so whatever we bring to site we can also put exactly where it needs to go.
Most of the work
What comes off the beds most days
Containers, cabins and plant are items we often transport. Everything else we carry is listed further down.
Portable cabin transport
Site cabins, welfare units and modular buildings craned in over a fence or a wall and lowered level onto a prepared base.
Portable cabin transport
Plant and machinery
Access platforms, generators and site machines on flatbeds and low loaders, lifted on rather than driven on where they will not start.
Plant and machinery
Services
Pick the one that fits your job
If more than one applies, start anywhere — the same team quotes all of them.
- Container transport
- Shipping containers collected, carried and set down where you want them. No forklift needed on site.
- Portable cabin transport
- Site cabins, welfare units and modular buildings moved, relocated and set down level on a prepared base.
- Used cabin sales
- Used site offices, canteens, welfare and anti-vandal units bought, refurbished and sold, and delivered by our own hiabs.
- Plant and machinery
- Machines lifted on rather than driven on, so a unit that will not start still travels.
- Abnormal loads
- Over 44 tonnes, over 2.9 metres or over 18.65 metres, with our own notices and escorts.
- Wide loads
- Anything past 2.9 metres, escorted by our own vehicles rather than a fourteen day wait.
- Long loads
- Extendable trailers to 45ft, and wagon and drag units that give you two beds.
- Low loader hire
- For plant too tall for a flatbed, loaded by ramp or lifted on by our own crane.
- Contract haulage
- Ongoing haulage for construction, engineering and hire companies, on account.
- Storage and distribution
- Seven acres in central Manchester, with our fleet delivering to site on demand.
- UK nationwide delivery
- England, Scotland and Wales from a Manchester base, with nationwide movement orders arranged for wide loads.
- Truck-mounted crane hire
- The lifting side on its own: lorry loaders lifting over 8 tonnes with an ALLMI trained driver / operator.
- Statues and sculptures
- Public and private artwork carried and craned onto its plinth by the same vehicle, soft-slung and chocked rather than strapped over.
- Hiab hire
- The general service. A crane, a bed and a driver / operator, by the job, the half day, the day or on contract.
The long list
Things we have lifted that are not on the menu
The service pages above cover what people search for. This is closer to what actually goes on the beds.
- Shipping containers, portable cabins, welfare units and modular buildings
- Steel sections, portal frames, beams, roof purlins and fabrications
- Precast concrete, blocks, kerbs, bollards and thermalite pallets
- Plant, machinery, generators, compressors and piling rigs
- Tanks, pressure vessels, silos, hoppers and water tanks
- Signage, billboards, gantries and street lighting columns
- Kiosks, snack bars, festival stands and event structures
- Glamping pods, garden rooms, hot tubs and saunas
- Rail equipment, sleepers and track-side materials
- Cable drums, reels, steel coil and stillages
- Sculptures and statues, safes and one-off awkward items
- Full factory relocations and complete site-to-site moves
- Airport and port collections and deliveries across the UK
- Palletised freight distribution and site materials
Not exhaustive, and not a promise that any given item is inside the crane chart — that depends on the weight and the radius. Send the details and we will check it properly.
The unusual ones
Jobs that were not on anyone’s list either
A helicopter, from Blackpool Airport
Rotors off, cradled, and moved by road. Not a weekly occurrence, but the principle is the same as any other awkward load.
A kiosk on the coast
Delivered and positioned on an exposed coastal site where a mobile crane would have had nowhere to rig.
Food kiosks at a stadium
Units placed inside a stadium concourse, working around the fixture list.
Christmas market units, Manchester
Delivered into the city centre overnight and collected again in January.
Signage and gantries
Large signage lifted into position and held while it is fixed, rather than dropped and left.
Lifted in over the boundary
Domestic lifts where the only route to the back garden is over the wall or the fence.
University campus deliveries
Working inside a live campus with pedestrians, timed access and no room for error.
Site cabins at Glastonbury
Welfare units and site cabins run down to Somerset by lorry, then placed in a field with no hard standing and collected again afterwards.
A football academy build
Cabins and containers into a live training ground, lifted off the same wagon that carried them so nothing waits on a second contractor.
Common questions
Hiab services, answered
What exactly is a hiab?
A lorry with a hydraulic crane mounted behind the cab. Hiab is a manufacturer name that became the everyday word for the machine, the way people say hoover for a vacuum cleaner. The point of one is that a single vehicle carries the load and lifts it, so nothing else has to be hired or waiting.
Do you only work in the North West?
No. We are based in Manchester and a lot of our work is local, but we operate across mainland England, Scotland and Wales. Our transport team arranges nationwide movement orders for wide loads as required.
Can I hire a lorry without a driver?
No. Every vehicle goes out with a Nortons driver / operator who is ALLMI trained and CPCS qualified. That keeps the competence, the lift plan and the insurance with us, which is where a client generally wants it.
Do you work for private customers or only trade?
Both. A single item delivered and set down, and a year-long site contract, are both normal work here. We are happy to open a credit account for regular customers, subject to credit checks.
Something on my list is not on your site. Do you do it?
Probably. The service pages cover what people search for, not everything we move — the list below gives a better sense of the range. If it needs lifting off a lorry, ask.
Tell us what needs lifting
Tell us what you need lifting or transporting and we will come back with a vehicle and a price.
