Driven or craned? Loading and lifting a machine onto a trailer

Three ways on and off

Driven or tracked on

Self-propelled plant climbs the ramps under its own power, with the haulier or your operator driving it. Cheapest and quickest where the machine runs, the ramps suit it and there is firm level ground to work from.

Forklift or telehandler

Suits skidded, crated and smaller machines within the truck's capacity. Needs the right capacity at the right reach, not just any forklift on site, and needs somebody competent operating it.

Crane lift

Required for machines that cannot be driven, cannot be forked, or must be placed precisely inside a building. Brings an appointment, a lifting plan, slinging arrangements and everyone needing to be present at the same time.

Getting a lift right

• Find the lifting points. Machine documentation, plates on the frame, or the manufacturer. Slinging a machine without documented points is slower and riskier, and some machines have specific instructions about what may be lifted from.
• Know the weight, not the model's brochure weight. Attachments, coolant, fuel and added guarding all count, and the crane is sized on the real figure plus the radius.
• Check the ground. Outriggers need bearing capacity. Basements, service ducts, drainage runs and soft yards are the reason lifts get abandoned.
• Check overhead. Power lines, gantries, canopies and building steelwork decide whether the lift is possible from where the crane can stand.
• Confirm who supplies the crane, who plans the lift and who is responsible for the slinging. It should be explicit in writing before the day.

Positioning at the delivery end

The road move is the predictable part. The last 50 metres, through a gateway, across a yard, through a roller shutter and onto a plinth, is where machinery moves are won or lost. Measure the doorway, confirm the floor loading, check the turning circle and make sure whatever is currently standing in the space has already been moved. A machine sitting on a trailer because its position is not ready is a machine you are paying for by the hour.

The pre-move checklist

1. Confirm the loading method at both ends, in writing, in the quote.
2. Confirm who is present: haulier, crane, your engineers, a machine operator, and who is in charge on site.
3. Prepare the machine. Disconnected, drained where required, attachments removed or secured, and safe to move.
4. Clear the route and the destination before the vehicles arrive, not while they wait.
5. Agree the standing time rate so that if something does slip, the cost is already known.

Lifting operations are planned work with their own competence requirements. Where a crane is involved, ask who is providing the appointed person and the lift plan, and satisfy yourself that responsibility is clearly allocated before work starts. Nothing on this page is a lifting plan or safety advice.