Updated
A container delivery is a heavy, long, awkward vehicle movement ending in a precise placement. Most of what determines whether it succeeds happens before the vehicle is booked.
This page covers the four delivery methods and what each needs from the site, so the right one is specified at the outset rather than discovered on the day.
Tilt-bed delivery
The trailer bed tilts and the container slides off the back as the vehicle pulls forward. It is the cheapest method and the one that needs the most space: the vehicle must reverse into line with the final position and needs the container's own length again to run off.
Plan for roughly 25 m of straight, firm approach for a 20ft and 30 m for a 40ft, plus room to manoeuvre before that.
Crane truck (HIAB)
The vehicle parks alongside the final position and lifts the container off with a mounted crane. It solves sites where run-off space does not exist, and it can place a unit over a low obstacle.
What it needs instead is width alongside, firm ground for the outriggers, and clear airspace — overhead cables and tree branches stop more crane deliveries than anything else. Reach falls off with distance, so the vehicle must be able to get genuinely close.
Side loader
A self-loading trailer lifts the container from its own deck and sets it down beside the vehicle. It needs less run-off than a tilt-bed and less crane reach than a HIAB, at the cost of needing width along the whole length of the trailer.
Depot collection
You send a vehicle to the depot where the unit stands. Cheapest overall if you have suitable transport and a driver able to secure the load. Also the fastest, because it does not queue behind our transport availability.
What causes failed deliveries
A failed delivery is charged, because the vehicle and driver have been used. Answering the access questions on the RFQ carefully is worth real money.
- Soft ground — the most common cause by a distance. A loaded vehicle sinks and the delivery stops.
- Overhead obstructions — cables, branches and canopies on the final approach
- Parked vehicles — a route that was clear when it was surveyed and is not on the day
- Gate width and turning circles — measured at the gate, forgotten on the corner before it
- Nobody on site — no one to direct placement or sign for the unit