Paddock delivery: the truck, the gate and the ground
We book the truck and price it into your quote. Your part is the spot: firm standing, a gateway the vehicle fits through, and nothing hanging over it. On black-soil country the ground usually decides the day, not the container.
Three vehicles, three sets of needs
Tilt-tray
Most 10ft and 20ft drops. Needs about 3.5m through the narrowest point and around 20m of straight approach. It tips its bed to slide the unit off, so it can't unload facing down a real slope.
Sidelifter
How 40ft units arrive. Lifts the container off the side and sets it beside the trailer. Allow about 30m of clear working room and firm ground under the outrigger legs as well as the wheels.
Crane truck (HIAB)
Lifts over fences, into tight yards and down sloping blocks. Dearer than a tilt-tray, and the usual answer when the other two can't get in.
Check your ground and access
Four questions, and the likely set-up appears beside them. It's a starting point — pictures of the gate and the spot let us confirm it.
- Set the unit on blocks, sleepers or a compacted pad under each corner casting
- Rain or irrigation on black soil means waiting for it to firm up
- Old farm grids and culverts often have no rating — tell us if that's yours
- Look up: power to the shed and overhanging gums rule out some vehicles
- Steep ridge driveways in Toowoomba often need the crane truck
What's the ground at the spot?
Has it been wet lately — rain or irrigation?
How does a truck get to the spot?
Anything else between the road and the spot?
Answer the four questions and the likely set-up appears here.
Let it dry before the drop
Wet black soil is what bogs a loaded truck on the Downs, and irrigated ground counts as wet. We'll book the delivery for when the paddock is carrying again, or look at a firmer set-down such as a gravel pad or the shed apron.
Probably a crane truck
A narrow gate, a slope or something overhead is the job a HIAB crane is for: it lifts the unit over the obstacle instead of driving around it. It costs more than a tilt-tray. Send us pictures and we'll confirm before quoting.
Tell us about the crossing
Plenty of older farm grids and culverts were never built for a loaded sidelifter. If you know the rating, include it; if you don't, say so, and we'll plan a different route or set the unit down short of it.
Sounds like a standard drop
Firm ground, a decent gate and a clear run usually means a tilt-tray for a 10ft or 20ft, or a sidelifter for a 40ft. That's the simplest and cheapest way in.
Toowoomba to Goondiwindi, Warwick to Miles
Choose a town for local access notes.
East, towards the range
Toowoomba · Oakey · Pittsworth
West into the Western Downs
Chinchilla · Miles · Tara
South and south-west
Further out than these? We run further west and south than people expect, and long runs are grouped where possible, which helps the price. Before you ring, gates, grids and black soil lists what we'll ask.
One price, truck included
Your quote covers the container and the delivery together — no separate freight invoice later.
- Size, or what has to fit inside
- Town or property name
- Gate width and the state of the ground, if you know them