Slung and tagged
Beams rigged with the right slings and a tag line before anything leaves the deck. Steel is unforgiving about being swung.
Delivered and lifted by the same vehicle
Steel beam transport
The steel arrives on a lorry that can put it where it is going. Off the deck, over the wall and onto the padstones without a second crane on site.
The saving
Steel that lands where it is needed
A beam delivered to the kerb still has to get into the building. That second movement is where the cost and the risk live.
Because our crane travels on the same vehicle as the steel, the beam goes from the trailer to its final position in one movement. It is never set down in the road, never restacked, and never waiting for a crane that is booked for the following Tuesday.
On house extensions and small commercial frames that usually removes a separate crane hire altogether. On a larger frame it means the tower crane is not tied up on deliveries when it should be erecting.
Loading in erection sequence is free and saves the steel crew an afternoon. Tell us the order and we will load to it.
A job in four pictures
Structural steel into a live building
From the 2024 job book: beams delivered and set inside an existing structure, with the crane working through an opening rather than over open ground.
Working inside the structure
The crane reaching in through an opening. This is where published capacity-at-radius stops being a marketing figure and starts being the plan.
Landed on the padstones
Set down on prepared bearings, checked and released. Straight from the trailer to its final position, with no intermediate set-down.
Length and the law
When a steel load becomes an abnormal load
Beams get long before they get heavy. A rigid length over 18.65 metres — that is the vehicle and the load measured together, not the beam on its own — makes the movement an abnormal load and brings statutory notice with it, a minimum of two working days.
Under that, an extendable trailer drawn out to suit the load handles it as ordinary haulage. Ours extend to 36, 39 and 45 feet, so a long beam does not automatically become a notified movement.
Where a movement does need notice, or an escort, we handle both. Our own escort vehicles avoid the fourteen-day lead time a police escort requested through a force generally carries.
Long loads and extendable trailers · The four abnormal load thresholds
Common questions
Steel beam transport, answered
Can you lift the beams into position as well as deliver them?
That is the point of using us. The crane is on the lorry that brought the steel, so beams go from the deck to the padstones without touching the ground. On a domestic or small commercial job that often removes a separate crane hire entirely.
How long a beam can you carry?
Three extendable semi-trailers at 36, 39 and 45 feet, plus two fixed 45 foot beds. A rigid length over 18.65 metres — vehicle and load measured together — makes the movement an abnormal load, which needs a minimum of two working days statutory notice.
How heavy a beam can you lift into place?
It depends entirely on how far out it has to go. Our 858 rigid lifts over 8 tonnes and reaches 19.6 metres, and what it holds falls away as the boom extends. Give us the beam weight and the distance from where the lorry can stand to where it lands, and the answer is a lookup rather than a guess.
Do you deliver in the order we are erecting?
Yes, and it is worth asking for. Steel that arrives in erection sequence saves the crew from restacking a load on a site with nowhere to stack it. Tell us the sequence and we will load to it.
Can you get into a domestic street or a back garden?
Often. Beams for a house extension are a regular job — the lorry stands on the road and the crane places the beam where it is needed. The limiting factor is almost always the standing position rather than the crane.
Do you handle the lift plan?
Yes. We have our own appointed persons, and we can supply lift plans and RAMS, generic or job-specific.
Steel to move?
Tell us what the load is and where it is going. You will get a firm answer, not an estimate.
