How Are Shipping and Storage Containers Delivered?

You will have seen hundreds of shipping containers on the move along motorways during your travels, you might have even caught sight of a container vessel whilst on a ferry journey! But how could one of these giant storage boxes be delivered to your site?

3J Services Ltd work with a group of specially selected, fully qualified container hauliers across the UK. Our trusted teams operate various types of vehicles, suited to deliver containers and cabins onto all sorts of sites, mainly using Hi-Abs to off-load. 

Our most common method of delivering shipping containers and cabins to locations around the UK is by using a Hi-Ab vehicle. These vehicles are usually a flatbed or skeletal trailer, equipped with a hydraulic crane (The Hi-Ab) which is situated behind the drivers’ cab. The craned lorries can range from 20ft to 55ft in length. The crane is operated by the driver who will attach chains to the hook of the hi-ab and the four top corner castings of the container. He then uses a control pad lift to operate the Hi-Ab, off-load and position the container. 

How can I move my shipping container once it’s on site?

Shipping containers can weigh up to 4T when empty and 28T fully loaded! They are bulky units but do have some handy options if you need to shuffle them around on site. Containers are equipped with extremely strong, load bearing corner posts with corner castings at the top and bottom. The standard way to off-load and move a container is by hooking chains through the corner castings and lifting the unit using a hi-ab mounted vehicle. This can be done at the top and bottom castings. 

Another way to move a container is by the forklift pockets. 20ft standard shipping containers usually have forklift pockets at the side of the unit and at either short end. We recommend using 8ft long forks with an 8ft wide split.